Savannah Marshall Retains WBO World Title & Moves Closer to Claressa Shields Mega Fight

Savannah Marshall defeated previously unbeaten Lolita Muzeya in front of her home crowd in Newcastle to successfully defend her WBO World middleweight title.

Headlining Boxxer's 'Newcastle Takeover', The silent assassin Savannah Marshall duly delivered, scoring a prodigious knockout over Zambia's Lolita Muzeya.

Thousands of fans packed out the Utilta Arena in Newcastle to support their World Champion. Muzeya's plans to snatch the World title were scuppered as Marshall scored a swift second round knock out victory.

Muzeya came firing out the blocks, looking for the big shots to put Marshall away. However, Savannah used her brilliant defensive to avoid the attack. 

The second round continued in the same fashion, with neither fighter wanting to go the full distance. With only 30 seconds remaining in the round Marshall went on a blistering attack, accurate and powerful shots that stunned her opponent forcing her back on to the ropes and inevitably forcing the referee to step in.

After the fight it was announced Savannah Marshall and Claressa Shields would both fight on the same card in Birmingham on December 11th.

"Claressa couldn't last two minutes with me, never mind two rounds," she said, drawing huge cheers from the crowd.

In the chief support Chris Eubank scored a stoppage victory over Wanik Awdijan, who failed to come out of his corner for the sixth round with suspected broken ribs caused by a thunderous body shot in the fifth.

It took a few rounds for Eubank Jr to find his rhythm and range against a tricky southpaw in Awdijan but as the fight progressed his shots were breaking through the defence of Awdijan.

The referee accepted the retirement of Awdijan before the start of the sixth round, with suspected broken ribs, the German told his corner he was struggling to breathe, leading to the retirement.

Hughie Fury took a step towards Heavyweight title contention with a stoppage win over Christian Hammer, who also retired on his stool at the end of the fifth due to a bicep injury.

Fury looked in control throughout the five rounds, using his speed and movement to avoid the power shots of Hammer and land some clean, crisp shots.

Hammer had a point deducted in the fifth for repeatedly hitting Fury on the break, causing him to go all out for the victory and in the process tearing his bicep which would force him to retire from the contest at the end of that round.

Bradley Rea & Jez Smith put on a unbelievable fight for the fans and a fight of the year contender. Both men left it all in the ring over the 8 rounds and unsurprisingly stole the show.

Brad Rea scored a knockdown in the first round with a thunderous body shot that bellowed around the arena. Smith managed to survive the knockdown and the onslaught that came after.

The pair traded non stop throughout the bout with Rea taking the share of the opening rounds, but Smith edged his way back in to the fight. Rea had the stronger finish that pushed him to the victory on the scorecard that read 77-75 in favour of the Manchester fighter.

Kirstie Bavington shocked April Hunter to take away her perfect record as a professional. Bavington shocked Hunter as she came out firing out for the first round, Hunter couldn't deal with the aggression giving away the early rounds. April started to have more success as the fight progressed but it wasn't enough to undo the work that had been done by Bavington.

After that victory Bavington moves to 5-2-2 and with her first loss Hunter now has a record of 4-1.

Durham's Georgia O'Connor made her professional debut on the undercard with a punch perfect victory against experienced Croatian Ester Konenca over 6 rounds. O'Connor dominated the centre of the ring during the fight and showed why she was a stand out amateur star.

Cruiserweight Mark Webster kicked off the show with a comfortable stoppage win over Gennadi Stserbin. Webster dominated the fight and after the second round Ststerbin retired on his stool. 

Mark Dickinson made a fast start in the pro ranks getting rid of opponent Ivica Gogosevic inside the first round. Middleweight Dickinson is trained by Ben Davison and signed for new promotional company Probellum recently. Newcastle's own, Steve Robinson also stopped his opponent Reece Barlow in the first round with a right hand that sent Barlow sprawling to the canvas and failed to make the count.