Former WBO women’s middleweight champion Savannah Marshall made her MMA debut against Mirela Vargas in the main event of PFL Europe 2, where she earned a first-round TKO.
The match was the super-middleweight boxing champion’s first MMA bout, and she spoke to The MMA Hour afterward to recount her experience.
“When I was in the changing rooms, Tom Aspinall told me, ‘It’s not like boxing. They start fast. They start really fast. In boxing, you can go out there, feel your range, get your jab going, and three rounds in you pick up the pace. He was like, ‘No, there’s none of that. It starts fast,’ And wow! I knew it started fast, but straight away, she buckled me with a leg kick. It was just so intense and so fast-paced. Even when I got out of the cage, O sat in medical doing a check over, and I started thinking, ‘What on Earth has just happened?’
“It was just so quick, Before I knew it, I was up, and I was back on the floor, then she had me in a head-and-arm, then I was back up. Honestly, the adrenaline and the buzz, it was just crazy. … The way I can describe it is fight or flight. It was literally kill or be killed, that’s how it felt for me.”
Following this debut victory, Marshall feels really confident she could win in a rematch battle against pound-for-pound female boxer Claressa Shields. The fights first went head-to-head in pursuit of the middleweight title in 2022. However, Shield emerged victorious after a unanimous decision win. Fans and the fighters have since clamored for a rematch, and Marshall believes she can take out her opponent in the eventuality of a rematch. In an interview with SkySports, Marshall disclosed her thoughts.
“It’s a funny scenario because although I got beat, having been beaten the position I’ve got myself in now, the publicity. My stock has risen.
“There’s only me and her who know really how that fight went. Who knows what shots were landing, what shots were missing, know what shots hurt. And she knows that was close. There were times when I knew she was struggling. There were times, even in that fight, when I caught her with shots that I wasn’t really intending to catch her with.”
“Out boxing her with my skill rather than my size and my power, I do believe I can outbox Claressa.”
The pound-for-pound champion, who also competes in MMA for PFL, was in attendance at Marshall’s MMA debut. She critiqued Marshall’s performance and opponent, stating that her PFL fights were much more difficult. In response, Marshall gave a pretty relaxed comment.
“I think there’s respect there, but deep down, there’s still that little bit of needle,” Marshall said. “ Nor just her side but even mine as well. There’s always little sly digs all the time. Even that comment there, I totally disagree. I remember Claressa’s first opponent didn’t even throw a punch. She didn’t do anything. Whereas I feel Mirela Vargas, hats off to her, Fair play because that girl who turned up was not the girl I spent three months watching on YouTube. It was the best version of her I’ve ever seen. I wasn’t expecting that. …
“I’d like to have Claressa next, I think in an ideal world I’d like to have couple more, but I understand it’s business and I want to ride that wave, I think I showed that I’m ok , I can get up off the floor, I’ve still got to work on me standup, adjusting to the whole defending kicks, that sorts of thing, takedowns. I don’t want to show too much of the stuff that I’ve been working on because I never really had a chance to show it on Saturday. So yeah, I’m quite confident I’d do Claressa in the cage. I think do [think so].”
