![Franchon Crews-Dezurn - Franchon Crews-Dezurn — The American Idol contestant taking on Savannah Marshall](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/boxing/2023/06/29/TELEMMGLPICT000340992333_16880370083740_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqVKc8nFWE3rWkALh7wZjTDCEAo2kWvsTs5dRMcvy0mO0.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Franchon Crews-Dezurn — the American Idol contestant taking on Savannah Marshall
Undisputed champion enters the ring against Briton as underdog, but is certain she will be singing a victory song come Saturday night
![Franchon Crews-Dezurn - Franchon Crews-Dezurn — The American Idol contestant taking on Savannah Marshall](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/boxing/2023/06/29/TELEMMGLPICT000340992333_16880370083740_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqVKc8nFWE3rWkALh7wZjTDCEAo2kWvsTs5dRMcvy0mO0.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Franchon Crews-Dezurn is an undisputed boxing champion but it is her life outside the ring which makes her one of the most fascinating women’s fighters — if not sportspeople — on the planet.
The effervescent 36-year-old has designed a clothing range and, moreover, is a singer of some repute. She released a single “Secret Place” last month, which reached No. 30 on the Music Week charts here in the UK this week. Almost two decades ago, as a teenage singer with aspirations to be a global performer, Crews-Dezurn was auditioning on American Idol and was told by Simon Cowell, who knew that she also boxed, that there was “a choice to be made.” She ignored him.
“I was very very very young then and I had just started boxing. I hadn’t even made Team USA, I had less than 10 fights when I was on that show, but I did declare that if I didn’t make it I was going to be a world champion, and I’ve become just that and I’m an ‘American Idol’ in some kind of sense,” Crews-Dezurn explained to Telegraph Sport.
As a boxer, ‘The HH Diva’ — her ring sobriquet of Heavy Hitting Diva — has gone on to claim multiple USA amateur titles as well as bronze and silver medals at the World Amateur Championships before turning her attention to the paid ranks in 2016, suffering her only defeat in 10 contests to fellow American Claressa Shields on her debut.
But now holding all the world title belts at super-middleweight, Crews-Dezurn will defend her titles against Hartlepool’s Savannah Marshall in Manchester in a high profile fight on Saturday night.
Despite being the undisputed champion, Crews-Dezurn is the underdog with the bookies, but has been lapping up the attention in the build-up this week on her UK debut, and has released her new single to coincide with the fight.
“Honestly, I can’t wait to step into that ring against Marshall; I feel like when I have the odds stacked against me I perform better,” the Virginia-born boxer responded.
“The UK has been so kind, I’ve had a great reception for the song, and I feel like this is historic, and when you make these historic moments and do these big things you make sure you do it to top tier level that you can — and having a song charting, headlining an event at an amazing place, is like wow!
“The fans have been amazing and supportive this week, but I’m just ready to fight.
“Look, I didn’t come over here to sip tea and eat crumpets, I came over here to kick her ass. That’s the truth, I have a respect for Savannah, we have history. You signed up to take something from me and the last person who tried to take something from me got beat up and exposed. It’s always the best woman that’s gonna win, but I am the best woman, and she’s not taking anything from me.”
For Marshall, this is a moment to redeem herself, after also losing to Shields in another high profile fight in the UK last October. Crews-Dezurn claimed all the super middleweight belts at Madison Square Garden New York on a historic night in April last year, on the undercard of Katie Taylor versus Amanda Serrano and insisted that Marshall will be dragged into the trenches. She knows what defeat tastes like, and has not forgotten it.
“When I stepped on the scene and took a defeat, well I don’t want to say defeat, I didn’t get the decision, and to see me rise like the black phoenix, and see me make history in dominant fashion, it meant the world to me [to claim the undisputed title in New York]. I felt my mum’s presence was there, I had my tribe around me, they got to experience it and I mean I don’t know if I could top that here, but that’s just one for the books and I wouldn’t change it for the world, and I’ll always take that with me when I’m old and grey.”
Turning her attention to Marshall, Crews-Dezurn explained: “I’m going to win, by any means necessary, as long as it’s legal, you know.”
There has even been talk that Crews-Dezurn could sing the US national anthem on Saturday night. She plays it down. “I’m gonna do something special, I don’t know if I’ll be able to sing the whole anthem, but I’m a world champion, I love being from the USA, I love humans, I love people from all walks of life, but I’m definitely going to give a show: you’re going to get fashion, you’re going to get entertainment, you’re going to get a good-ass fight, and you’re going to get me at the end with my hand raised so make sure y’all tune in.”
Crews-Dezurn remains part of the evolution and the revolution of women’s boxing and is doing it her own way.