“It’s Going to Be Payback!”: Claressa Shields’ Close Friend Seeks Vengeance Against Amateur Nemesis

Thirty-six-year-old Franchón Crews-Dezurn is going to war. The undisputed Super Middleweight champion will defend her title from the Briton Savannah Marshall‘s challenge on July 1 at Manchester Arena. But in doing so, the American boxer hopes to kill two birds with one stone. As much as it is about her first title defense, Crew-Dezurn hasn’t forgotten the defeat she suffered at the hands of the former WBO Middleweight champion during their amateur years, a fate she shares with friend and fellow boxer Claressa Shields.

It’s more than a year since Franchón Crews-Dezurn saw the face of the ring. Last year, on April 30, she defeated the Swede Elin Cederroos unanimously to become an undisputed champion. She faces Savannah Marshall on Saturday night. But the loss at London’s ExCel Arena during the 2011 Olympic Test Event might flash in. Remembering the trouncing, Franchón Crews-Dezurn told Sky Sports about her despair afterward.

Claressa Shields’ close friend reminisces about painful Amateur loss

Claiming that she was the one who won that day, the Virginian said, “Savannah did what she [could] do, which was her best, and she can’t control the people pushing the button. But if you feel like you can do what you think you did, then do it again now…I know in my heart I won that fight.” She still laments the day and believes it negatively impacted her amateur career.

“It’s going to be payback and getting paid. You ain’t got nothing. I’ve got it all and I’m going to keep it,” Dezurn added.

But Crews-Dezurn wasn’t the only one Savannah Marshall defeated as an amateur boxer. During the 2012 AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships, the Briton defeated Claressa Shields. The latter nevertheless went on to claim the London Olympics gold.

To date, that remains the only reversal in an otherwise unbeaten career of Claressa Shields. But the Flint, Michigan-born boxer exacted her revenge last year. She met Marshall at London’s O2 Arena on October 15 last year and, with a unanimous victory, became the undisputed Middleweight champion. Shields even highlighted the feat yesterday as she came across the Crews-Dezurn – Marshall update on the ‘sportingnews.’ She tweeted, “The delusion of this girl is comical. She forgot I whooped her a**e.”

In a twist of fate, both Franchón Crews-Dezurn and Claressa Shields professionally debuted together on November 19, 2016. The former lost the four-round match by a unanimous decision. Nonetheless, the two eventually became close friends.   

Read More: ‘She Is Just Not Physically Big Enough or Strong Enough to Handle Me’: Laila Ali Dropped Bombshell on Claressa Shields Not Too Long Ago

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