Savannah Marshall kicks off the Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor undercard with debut win

The 26-year-old put in an assured performance on her professional debut, beating the more experienced Sydney LeBlanc on a unanimous decision

Luke Brown
Las Vegas
Saturday 26 August 2017 20:01 EDT
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Marshall made light work of LeBlanc on her debut
Marshall made light work of LeBlanc on her debut (Getty)

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Great Britain’s Savannah Marshall won her professional debut on the Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor undercard on Saturday night, beating the American Sydney LeBlanc on a unanimous decision.

Marshall was fighting for the first time after signing up to Mayweather’s stable in May, and was rarely troubled by her more experienced opponent.

The 26-year-old, who won the UK’s first ever women’s amateur boxing world championship, looked confident on her debut, controlling the middle of the ring and unleashing a stinging combination LeBlanc’s body at the end of the second round.

She was rarely troubled and so it was no surprise to see her win by a unanimous points decision, with all three judges scoring the bout 40-36.

After, Marshall said that she was delighted with her performance against a “top-class opponent”.

“I felt brilliant,” she said.

“I’m really glad it was three-minute rounds because I prefer that over two-minute rounds. She was really tough like I knew she would be. I'm glad that I got out of there with a win against a top class opponent

“I've been looking forward to this all week so I'm really excited about my performance. The build-up this week has been great.

“I knew it would be hard to stop her so I made sure to box her. I was able to execute my game plan. I'm happy with how I performed.”

Super-fight preview: Floyd Mayweather v Conor McGregor

The fight kicked off a busy evening of boxing at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, which will culminate in Mayweather’s super-welterweight match up against McGregor, who like Marshall will be making his professional debut.

For full coverage of the evening, click here.

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