Savannah Marshall picked up another dramatic knockout win as she retained her WBO middleweight title against Femke Hermans.

Marshall put her belt on the line for the third time against Hermans at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle on Saturday, live on Sky Sports.

There was a packed crowd in attendance to witness the fight, and Marshall (12-0, 10 KOs) once again display her power, as she knocked Hermans (12-4, 5 KOs) out cold at the end of the third round.

It means that ‘The Silent Assassin’ has moved a step closer to a summer showdown with Claressa Shields, and Marshall feels the American won’t be able to take her punches.

Marshall said: “There’s no-one else in the way between me and Claressa, so it’s me and her in the summer now. I know Claressa can’t handle my power. I believe I can beat her. It’s got to happen here in the North-East.”

Shields disagrees. She expects to box Marshall's ear off in their upcoming fight - which is being targeted for the summer.

"I said that she would do that with Femke. I'm not Femke Hermans, I'm not Hannah Rankin, I'm not any of those girls she fought against," Shields told Sky Sports. "As much punch power as she has, I'm sorry to tell you, if that's what I got to look forward to, it's going to be a wipe out.

"She's [Marshall] going to have trouble with me and she's definitely not going to knock me out. She's not [the biggest puncher in women's boxing], and you guys are going to see that when I come back over in the summer and show you that you have to have power, you have to have skill. You have to have all of that.

"It's just not going to take her one big punch to deal with me inside the ring. It's going to take a lot. Femke was able to make her miss and I'm 10 times faster than Femke, so what do you think I'm going to do?"