Savannah Marshall’s wild MMA debut wowed the crowd at PFL Newcastle, and left one notable figure in particular blown away with how well she performed in her first-ever appearance in an MMA cage.
UFC interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall was a part of Marshall’s corner team on the night, and admitted that he was amazed with how the undisputed super middleweight boxing world champion fared on her PFL Europe debut.
Chatting to the PFL’s official YouTube channel after the fight, a seemingly exhausted Aspinall laughed, “Oh mate, that’s why I don’t do people’s corner! Oh my goodness!
“I think Savannah is like a full certified crazy person at this point! Yeah, that was probably one of the wildest fights I’ve ever seen. It was crazy.”
Marshall went through a wild rollercoaster of a fight with Brazil’s Mirela Vargas as she found herself having to deal with kicks, takedowns and even a submission attempt as she faced the various threats MMA offers that she would never have experienced before inside a boxing ring.
And, despite having a fraction of the MMA experience of her opponent, Marshall scrambled well, worked her way out of tricky positions and, after getting the fight back to the feet, turned to her world-class boxing to light up Vargas and claim the crowd-pleasing first-round TKO victory.
Her performance after so little MMA training left UFC superstar Aspinall suitably impressed.
“Savannah is raw, she’s been at the game like eight months, and she’s doing stuff well in the gym,” he explained.
“But doing it in the gym, and then doing it a fight, are two different things. Obviously, she’s got more stuff that she needs to learn in the gym, and more stuff that she needs to do in a fight, and that showed tonight. But what an exciting fight. I think her profile from this is just gonna go absolutely through the roof. She did incredible.”
She may not have brought too much MMA experience into the cage, but the one seasoned skillset she did bring proved to be the gamechanger on the night, as her elite-level boxing powered her to the finish. And, despite that experience, Aspinall said there’s even more to come from Marshall in that aspect of her game, with striking in four-ounce MMA gloves requiring slight adjustments to technique to maximise the power delivery.
“He is such a hard puncher. She’s just absolutely gifted when it comes to punching power with the little gloves on,” he said.
“You’ve got to remember, she has never really punched with a little glove on before tonight. It’s probably the first time she’s ever hit someone clean with a little glove. And once she gets used to that and turning your knuckles properly the way you do with little gloves, she’ll start knocking girls clean out, I’m sure.”
While the stand-up aspect of Marshall’s skillset held no concerns for Aspinall, the UFC champion did admit to some worries when Vargas was able to drag the action to the mat. And when the Brazilian appeared to lock up a head-and-arm choke mid-way through the round, Aspinall was super impressed with how Marshall dealt with the situation against a fighter with significantly more grappling experience.
“I’ll be honest, I nearly had a heart attack when that was in, because I know what it is to choke someone,” he said.
“I’m a black belt in jiu-jitsu, I’ve done jiu-jitsu for like 20 years, and that was tight. And the girl’s a purple belt. Savannah’s been training eight months. But it’s not even like she’s been training MMA eight months. That’s watered down into five different disciplines, six different disciplines. So, for Savannah to do that and escape against a high level girl like that when it’s in tight, that’s impressive, man.
“She’s obviously an extremely tough girl, obviously! And she said tonight, just as she was warming up, it was the 133rd fight in her life. It’s incredible the amount of experience, so even though it’s something new to her, and she probably felt some feelings she’s never felt before, she’s used to that.
“She’s used to being in there. She’s used to doing stuff and it’s gonna be exciting, however long she wants to do it. I don’t know how long she wants to do it, but it’s exciting stuff for Savannah.”
And, now the PFL has longtime boxing rivals Marshall and Claressa Shields under their banner, a meeting between the pair would seem like a logical next step. But, despite the lure of that big-box-office matchup, Aspinall said Marshall should consider getting some more fight time under her belt to better prepare for a matchup against “The GWOAT” who, at 2-1 in MMA, is a little further down the road in terms of her MMA experience.
“I think she probably needs one more before that fight,” Aspinall suggested.
“That’s a big fight. Get a little bit more comfortable in there. Because the thing is, her and Claressa, they’re gonna have a boxing match basically with MMA gloves on, aren’t they? And that’s going to be really exciting.
“But my personal opinion – I’m obviously not serving as coach or manager or anything like that, I’m just a friend – but I think one more would be better, just to get just to get the feel of the cage.
“It’s completely different, the feel of the cage – no shoes on, little gloves, punches coming towards you, kicks. She needs to get used to it all. And I think one more before a big one with Shields.”
