Claressa Shields denies having sex with rival Savannah Marshall before fight

Claressa Shields has denied having sex with her boxing rival Savannah Marshall head of their rescheduled fight yesterday (15 October).

The two women came to blows over the nature of their relationship on the Gloves Are Off programme, which saw them discuss their long-standing rivalry and Savannah's claim that they were 'screwing'.

As the women discussed their rivalry, Marshall ricked off the discussion mediated by Johnny Nelson by saying: "The fact that I won got us here."

"Yeah, sure," Shields replied.

This prompted Marshall to apparently add: "The fact that we were both screwing each other got us here."

Appearing baffled by the revelation, Shields said: "I didn't have sex with you."

"You did, you did," Marshall replied.

Shields added: "It's the fact that I even gave you attention."

"Are you joking?" Marshall asked. "You lost the plot. Your head fell off. You lost all self-control."

It went far from unnoticed when it was reposted to Twitter and at the time of writing, it's been viewed over a quarter of a million times.

Reacting to the revelation, one boxing fan wrote: "Ngl this added a whole other layer to the fight and I'm surprised it took this long for them to whip it out."

A second joked: "Ay don't they say, 'whatever happens at the Olympic training centre stays in the Olympic training centre'."

"Well I didn't expect that," wrote a third alongside a laughing emoji while a fourth speculated: "Tbf it sounds like screwing with each other... but don't think she meant it in that way [sic]."

Another viewer suggested that the fighter said 'screaming' and not 'screwing' and people are just mishearing the exchange.

The pair's rivalry is a long-standing one and goes back over a decade to when they were both amateur fighters.

The initial fight between the women was meant to take place on 10 September, but like many other events, it was postponed because of the Queen's death.

Shields ultimately went on to defeat Marshall in yesterday's fight, with the judges giving it a score of 96-94, 96-94 to Marshall and 97-93 to Shields.

Marshall previously beat Shields in the amateur world championships, which remains the only time she has been beaten to date.