Savannah Marshall earned a first-round win in her mixed martial arts debut in Newcastle on Saturday night.
The boxing star put in a dominant performance against Mirella Vargas in PFL Europe, but the bout was stopped with 32 seconds left in the first round when Vargas stumbled.
In August, just two weeks after Shields renewed his contract, Marshall signed a multi-year contract with the Professional Fighters League, and the two soon hinted at a rematch, but it has yet to materialize.
Shields was watching cageside as his rival claimed victory Saturday and could be seen in a picture-in-picture on the broadcast applauding his 33-year-old opponent when the bout was stopped.
After the bout, the American agreed to step into the ring and face Marshall in a rematch of the historic boxing bout in October 2022.
Late in the first round on Saturday, Vargas took center stage in the ring, where Marshall was seen cornering his opponent and landing a series of powerful rights and lefts.
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Vargas appeared to concede defeat and put up a defensive stance as the blows continued, but the referee stopped the fight and Marshall walked off in joy.
“You have to be a little crazy for an MMA fighter to do something like this,” Marshall said on the microphone after the fight.
She added, “Where's my friend Claressa? This is how you get up off the floor, baby.”
Shields then stepped into the ring and said, “Well done. That was worse than me in my debut.”
Marshall responded: “Yeah yeah. Hey, are we going to have sex in the cage?”
Shields responded: “Let's fight in a cage. Why not?”
Shields defeated Marshall by unanimous decision at the O2 Arena in London in October 2022, handing his rival the only loss of his career to date, and they have remained good friends ever since.
“Her next fight is against Claressa, who had very high praise for Savannah,” PFL Europe's head of fighter operations Dan Hardy said after the fight.
“I think Savannah earned Claressa's respect tonight, not only for her manual skills but also for the way she transitioned into mixed martial arts.”
“Claressa and Savannah are obviously going to fight next and I think that's going to happen. Claressa's going to have to deal with the boxing a little bit, but then that fight will be decided.”
“My understanding is that it will be towards the end of this year.”
Shields boasts a 2-1 record in MMA, winning her debut against Brittney Elkin in 2021 before losing a split decision to Abigail Montez a few months later.
Two and a half years later, she returned in February and defeated Kelsey DeSantis.
