Untouchable Scotney shines, but Marshall suffers defeat

Ellie Scotney shined for the British contingent at Madison Square Garden, but there was defeat for Savannah Marshall in New York.

Four Britons were making their promotional debuts for Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions on the undercard of Katie Taylor v Amanda Serrano 3.

There were point wins for Scotney, Ramla Ali and Chantelle Cameron as Scotney became the WBO, IBF and WBC super-bantamweight world champion in just her eleventh professional fight.

England’s Scotney, 27, fought like a champion with a point to prove as she added the WBC belt to her growing collection by beating Yamileth Mercado on points.

On a night when there were 17 world titles across five fights, Catford’s Scotney went home with three of them and is now just one belt away from becoming undisputed.

“I have had a real test in the past few months as everyone knows. I lost my dear friend Georgia, so tonight was for her,” Scotney said.

“She was 25 years old, she was a fighter and she lost her battle to cancer. Tonight, I made sure her name is remembered in Madison Square Garden.”

Mercado was outclassed over 10 rounds by the speed and movement of Scotney, spending most of the fight chasing the Englishwoman’s shadow.

Such was her dominance, Scotney’s hands slowly dropped further and further through the rounds as she began to toy with the Mexican, who had to battle a bad cut from round four.

Marshall had not fought in a boxing ring for two years, but still had hold of one of her world titles, the IBF, when she passed through the ropes.

The English fighter is a former undisputed champion at super-middleweight but, in her absence, Green had risen to world champion status with the WBO belt.

Hartlepool’s Marshall started well showing little ring rust, even smiling as she quickly seized control, walking down Green, who was deducted a point for holding.

The 34-year-old clipped Green on several occasions but the fight turned in round five when the American landed a big left hand.

Marshall endured two draining rounds and was hurt several times under pressure from Green.

Despite having the momentum, Green’s variety let her down and Marshall was able to weather the storm and clear her head.

The fight was finely balanced in the final four minutes, a testament to both fighters relying almost exclusively on winding up their big punches.

Marshall and Green were exhausted when the final bell sounded and both women cut nervous figures in the centre of the ring as the scorecards were read out.

One judge saw it 96-93 for Marshall, while the other scorecards read 95-94 and 96-93 for Green.

Light-welterweight Cameron and super-bantamweight Ali also collected wins on the undercard.

Cameron, 34, put herself in contention to fight the winner of Taylor v Serrano with a wide points win over Jessica Camara.

The Northampton fighter retained her position as the number one contender to the WBC light-welterweight world title with her 21st career victory.

But Ali, 35, was involved in a contentious decision win over Brazil’s Lila Furtado.

The Briton had been out of the ring for 13 months and a game Furtado appeared to be cruising to a win.

But Furtado left the ring in disgust when Ali got a clean sweep on the scorecards.

“I thought I won,” Ali said afterwards.

“I thought the drop in the second round should have been scored as a knockdown. I knew from then, yeah it got really messy, but I knew I was edging it because of the knockdown.