With Shields ringside watching on, Marshall was relaxed in the first couple of rounds as she worked her way into the fight.
But she increasingly showed her power and at the end of the third round she tagged Hermans with a stiff jab, before sending the Belgian crashing to the canvas with a devastating left hook.
The referee waved off the fight immediately, in the final second of the round, leaving Marshall to make her way over to Shields after a statement win that saw her defend her WBO middleweight title.
“It’s me and Claressa in the summer now,” Marshall said after the fight.
“I know Claressa can’t handle my power, I know when I land on her it’ll be good night. I believe I severely hurt Claressa.
“It’s got to happen here in the North East.”
Shields responded: “As much power as she has, if that’s what I’ve got to look forward to then it’s going to be a wipeout.”
Promoter Ben Shalom confirmed that the fight is potentially just a few days away from being confirmed, with it likely to take place in even late June or early June in England.
Marshall’s trainer Peter Fury said: “This is the biggest fight in women’s boxing, bar none.
“A power puncher against an excellent boxer. These are the best two and they need to square off. Simple.”
Earlier in the night, Florian Marku defended his IBF International welterweight title with a fourth-round stoppage of Chris Jenkins.
The pair clashed heads in the third round which cut Marku, but roared on by a huge number of Albanian fans in the arena, he badly hurt Jenkins in the fourth and the referee jumped in to wave it off. After the fight, Marku called out Amir Khan, Kell Brook and Conor Benn as he eyes a huge bout in the summer.
Zak Chelli got a sixth-round stoppage on his return after a year out of the ring, against last-minute opponent Jack Kilgannon who only took the fight on Thursday.
The super-middleweight loaded up on his shots throughout the bout and became increasingly frustrated as the fight went on. Chelli’s mood wasn’t helped when a clash of heads in the sixth round opened up a cut on his forehead, but with a second of the round remaining the bout was waved off after Kilgannon was knocked down by a punishing one-two to the head.
Brad Rea extended his unbeaten record to 13-0, beating Lukasz Ndafoluma in comfortable fashion with a 78-73 points decision in his favour.