Claressa Shields senses Savannah Marshall’s self-belief was what led the women’s WBO middleweight champion to finally feel she is ready to box Shields later this year.

Shields surmised Marshall didn’t believe in herself when Shields initially pursued a professional fight in 2018 with the only opponent who has beaten her in a professional or amateur bout. England’s Marshall (11-0, 9 KOs) has won all six of her fights since May 2019 by knockout or technical knockout and won the then-vacant WBO 160-pound championship Shields once owned along the way.

If Shields (11-0, 2 KOs) defeats Slovenian southpaw Ema Kozin (21-0-1, 11 KOs) on Saturday night in Cardiff, Wales, she’ll secure her place in an arranged showdown with Marshall that should take place by July at the latest. Marshall, who has been sidelined by a hand injury, is expected to make an optional defense of her middleweight title against an undetermined opponent in the coming months.

Whenever she gets the opportunity to avenge her only loss in a boxing ring, the 26-year-old Shields, of Flint, Michigan, is pleased Marshall changed her mind about their fight.

“I just think her confidence changed,” Shields told BoxingScene.com. “Some fighters, you have to feed them a few, you know, fighters they can knock out, people to make them feel like they’re ready for that step up of being a world champion. I was definitely chasing her the last couple years. We made her an offer in 2018, when I was at 168, and they declined us. I just think now she has the confidence because the pressure is on, you know? You have to give the fans the fights that they want.”

Shields, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, has wanted her shot at revenge since Marshall out-pointed her, 14-8, at the AIBA Women’s World Championships in May 2012. The three-division champion progressed so quickly after making her pro debut in November 2016, though, Shields opposed much more experienced opponents than Marshall during her ascent to the top of the 168-pound, 160-pound and 154-pound divisions.

“At first, the fans didn’t want me and Savannah Marshall [to fight] because it was other girls who they thought could beat me,” Shields said. “As in Christina Hammer, Hanna Gabriels, Tori Nelson, girls of that nature. Now that I’ve dethroned all those girls, now they’re looking at Savannah Marshall as their last hope to beat me. And so she has the record and we have the amateur [history] together, when we fought and she won. So, I think them also giving her the opponents that they’ve given her to knock out, that she has some confidence to get inside the ring with me.”

Shields, listed by DraftKings as a 25-1 favorite, and Kozin will fight for the IBF, WBA and WBC middleweight titles in the 10-round co-feature Saturday night at Motorpoint Arena. England’s Chris Eubank Jr. (31-2, 23 KOs) is set to square off with Wales’ Liam Williams (23-3-1, 18 KOs) in the main event, a 12-round middleweight match.

Sky Sports will air those two fights in the United Kingdom and Ireland. FITE.TV will stream Shields-Kozin, Eubank-Williams and a portion of the undercard on a pay-per-view basis outside of the UK and Ireland ($29.99 in the United States).

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.