Claressa Shields denied having sex with rival Savannah Marshall before their title fight

Claressa Shields denied having sex with her rival Savannah Marshall in the build-up to their undisputed middleweight title fight in London.

Shields beat Marshall on points at the O2 Arena on Saturday on a historic night for women's boxing.

The first all-female card in British boxing was headlined by their relentless title fight, which ended in a deserved victory for Shields.

The American won on all three judges' scorecards, with two scoring the fight 97-93 and the third favouring her 96-94.

In the build-up to the fight, Shields and Marshall went face-to-face on Sky Sports' The Gloves Are Off show, hosted by former cruiserweight world champion Johnny Nelson.

The tense face-off featured a bizarre moment in which Shields denied having sex with her British opponent.

While discussing what had brought them to this point in their careers, Shields and Marshall had different opinions.

Marshall began: "The fact that I won got us here."

Shields sarcastically responded: "Yeah, sure."

To which Marshall replied: "The fact that we were both screwing each other got us here."

A confused Shields then appeared to say: "I didn't have sex with you."

Marshall responded: "You did, you did."

Shields then added: "It's the fact that I even gave you attention."

Marshall then fired back: "Are you joking? You lost the plot. Your head fell off. You lost all self-control." 

It is not clear if Marshall was being entirely serious with her responses, or whether Shields had misheard her opponent.

Reacting to the exchange, one boxing fan posted on Twitter: "Ngl this added a whole other layer to the fight and I'm surprised it took this long for them to whip it out."

A second joked: "Ay don't they say, 'whatever happens at the Olympic training centre stays in the Olympic training centre'."

"Well I didn't expect that," wrote a third alongside a laughing emoji.

While a fourth added: "Tbf it sounds like screwing with each other... but don't think she meant it in that way [sic]."

Victory for Shields at the weekend saw her crowned undisputed middleweight champion of the world.

She has now won all 13 of her professional fights, with her only recorded defeat coming against Marshall in the amateur ranks back in 2012.