Claressa Shields won every minute of the defense of her WBC, WBA and IBF middleweight title defense against Ema Kozin, before exchanging taunts with Savannah Marshall. 

Try as she might she could not stop the Slovenian and was forced to settle for a unanimous points win in Cardiff and set up a unification fight against Marshall in June. 

It has been 4½ years since Shields stopped an opponent and having gone flat out to impress on her first fight in the UK since she won her first Olympic gold medal in London a decade ago, she could not find the finishing shots. All three judges scored it 100-90. 

“I thought there were plenty of moments where the referee should have stopped it,” Shields said. “I hurt her a whole lot, she is going to feel it when she goes home and I won every single round. I give myself an A minus. She took a beating for ten rounds.”

Thoughts quickly turned to a fight with Marshall, who defends the WBO title against Femke Hermans on March 12 in Newcastle. Marshall is the one person to beat her amateur or pro, at the World Championships in China in 2012. They have not met since, despite both competing in two Olympic Games together. 

“The girl that I want is Savannah Marshall,” she said. “That’s why I am here. She knows that’s why I am here. I done my job, her job is March 12, then I see her back here.” 

Southpaw Kozin was busy and had a jerky style as she tried to make an opening for a big left hand, but Shields picked her moments to throw and found her way through Kozin’s defences with a body shot and a decent right hand in the first round.  

Midway through the second round, after landing a series of body punches, Shields started to open up, catching Kozin straight down the middle of her guard. 

The Slovenian was unbeaten in 22 bouts and was called a world champion by the WBF, as if there were not enough world title belts around already.   

But she couldn’t do anything to keep Shields off her. By the fourth round, it was already brutally one-sided as she unloaded on Kozin, who was soaking up punishment to head and body. 

In the fifth round, Kozin found herself trapped in a corner as Shields landed with both hands and dived forward to grab Shields around the waist to get out of trouble. 

Kozin gave it a go early in the sixth, but some body punches put Kozin on the back foot again and she was trapped in a corner again as the bell went with Shields winging in punches.  

The pace slowed in the seventh, but it was still horribly one-sided, and by the ninth round she was simply following Kozin around as the Slovenian backed away. 

Marshall yawned to the cameras when shown on screen at ringside and took the opportunity to make a point to Shields when invited into Shields’s ringside interview. 

“If you perform like that against me, I will absolutely wipe the floor with you,” Marshall said. 

“You can’t wipe my drawers, you can’t to shit with me,” Shields responded. “I ain’t no punk, I'm not scared of you, that’s why I am here. You didn’t come to America, I came here. Win March 12, I will wipe the floor with you.” 

Marshall hit back. “You went 12 rounds with an absolute child, people were walking out after round five,” she said. “Pillow fists. I’ll stop you.” 

Shields replied: “I’m going to give you hell. Where are your gold medals at?”