WBC, IBF, WBA middleweight champion Claressa Shields is not fully convinced that WBO champion Savannah Marshall will go forward with their planned undisputed clash.

The fight has been a longtime coming - with Marshall defeating Shields in 2012 when both were amateurs. 

That defeat is the only blemish in the long boxing run of Shields.

The Shields vs. Marshall showdown is being targeted for a date in July.

However, Shields would not be surprised if Marshall decided to go in another direction.

"I am already fully prepared to win this fight and to go to the UK to fight her,’ Shields told Metro.co.uk.                              

"I have been telling people for years, she is terrified of me. No matter how many girls she has knocked out or what her record may show, she knows I am a different kind of animal and she is not able to knock me out or walk all over me. It is going to be the toughest fight of her life.

"That win [in the amateurs] when I was 17 is where her confidence comes from. I have already proven that I am better than her, with my two Olympic gold medals, my world championships, my world titles in three divisions. I am hoping it is going to be this summer because I have other things I want to do before the end the year.

"I don’t have time to be waiting around for Savannah Marshall to show up. I have got business to attend to in MMA in 2023 and then I am getting married in 2024. So I don’t really have time to wait for ‘Marshmallow’ to get her sh!t together. I am never going put my own career on hold for Savannah Marshall or for anybody."