The top female pound-for-pound boxers are leaving their male counterparts way behind in terms of transitioning to the sport of MMA. ESPN’s #7 ranked pound-for-pond boxer, Savanah Marshall is currently geared up to make her PFL debut on 8 May. The 33-year-old Hartlepool native also appeared on the latest episode of ‘The MMA Hour’ where she talked about why the top male pound-for-pound boxers aren’t interested in transitioning to MMA like their female counterparts.
Marshall’s fans have every reason to be excited as their beloved star’s MMA debut is just a couple of days away. However, boxing fans may also remember how the former WBC heavyweight champ, Tyson Fury, said he would never step “into a cage”, during one of his meetups with the UFC icon, Israel Adesanya. The boxing community is also yet to hear about any of the current top pound-for-pound boxers mentioning a transition to MMA like Marshall and Serrano.
The ‘Silent Assassin’ gave her take on why there was such a disparity between the male and female boxers in this regard. Marshall counted the “ego” in male boxers as the primary point behind their negligence towards transitioning to MMA, saying,
“You can’t have an ego in MMA. That’s what I have learned, especially since I come from boxing. If you’ve never been into BJJ, if you’ve never rolled before, you get humbled very quickly. I think that women deal with this a lot easier than most men do.”
Fans may have different opinions about Marshall’s take on the topic, but a deeper dive into the subject will reveal that there are other reasons behind the issue apart from the one that the 33-year-old counted.
Savannah Marshall ignored that top male boxers earn more than what they would in MMA
The current top male pound-for-pound boxer, Oleksandr Usyk’s earnings from his last fight stand at around $45M. At the same time, reports say that the UFC provided Brock Lesnar with $8M for his UFC 200 fight, which stands as the highest UFC payout for a single fight.
While giving her take on the situation, Marshall completely ignored the fact that male boxers amass a lot more wealth in boxing than they could in the sport of MMA. It’s quite apparent that hardly anyone would choose to take the hard way when they are already doing well in an easier field.
However, boxing fans would surely love to see female boxers like Amanda Serrano and Marshall conquer the cage after the ring. Hence, the support that Marshall will receive during her PFL debut on 8 June is expected to be massive.
