Junior lightweight titleholder Terri Harper and Natasha Jonas fought to an entertaining 10-round draw Friday in Essex, England.
Nothing was settled in the main event of the second Fight Camp card Friday night in Essex, England.
Junior lightweight titleholder Terri Harper, a rising star, and Natasha Jonas fought to an entertaining 10-round draw without spectators in the garden of the Matchroom Boxing offices.
One judge had it 96-94 for Harper, the second 96-95 for Jones and the third 95-95. Thus, Harper retained her belt.
Jonas (9-1-1, 7 KOs) was a significant underdog but didn’t fight like it, giving as much as she took in a back-and-forth battle that could’ve gone either way.
And the 2012 Olympian did it even though she suffered a cut above her right eye in the second round and is 13 years Harper’s senior. Jonas is 36, Harper 23.
Harper had expected to break down Jonas but her countrywoman proved to be resilient.
“I caught her with some good shots, she caught me with some,” Harper said. “That’s boxing. I’m disappointed, but I’ve got to think, I’m 23 years old, I had 16 amateur fights. This was a big night.
“I just want to thank Tasha for an excellent fight. This was a big learning fight for me, and I’ll be back in the gym soon.”
Jonas lost in the quarterfinals of the 2012 Londaon Games to eventual gold medalist Katie Taylor.
In other fights on the card, Anthony Fowler (13-1, 10 KOs) stopped Adam Harper (9-2, 0 KOs) in seven rounds in a scheduled 10-round middleweight fight; Hopey Price (3-0, 1 KOs) easily outpointed Jonny Phillips (5-5, 2 KOs) in a six-round junior lightweight bout; and Chris Billam-Smith (11-1, 10 KOs) knocked out Nathan Thorley (14-1, 6 KOs) in the second round to retain the Commonweather cruiserweight title.
At the age of 36, this could be London 2012 Olympian Jonas’ (9-1, 7 KOs) last chance at becoming a world champion in the professional ranks when she faces the 23-year-old Harper (10-0, 5 KOs) in the main event at Matchroom HQ in Brentwood, England.
Meanwhile, a first successful title defense since winning her belt against Eva Wahlstrom in February will mean Harper could eventually become a more recoginizable name in boxing than that of Jonas, who posed with a young Harper at a post-Olympics photo opportunity years ago.
In the run-up to this historic showdown, most of the talking has been done by the fighters’ respective trainers, Stefy Bull and Joe Gallagher.
So much so, in fact, that promoter Eddie Hearn insisted the two partake in their own head-to-head press conference just before their fighters did the same on Wednesday.
Once they were done bickering, bantering and talking over one another, it was time for the stars of the show to say their piece in a more respectful and less confrontational manner.
Nonetheless, both Harper and Jonas are extremely confident that they’ll get the chance to knock the other out — and that they’ll take that opportunity the first time it comes.
“A lot of people have said the pressure’s on me, but I’m just enjoying the journey,” said Harper. “I popped up from out of nowhere and I’m just enjoying the occasion. I’ve been told a few times about Joe’s mind games so I just switch off and do what I have to do.
“We’re prepared for the best Tasha, and she feels like she’s back to her amateur best. I’m gonna go for the stoppage. I believe if I land a good clean shot, it’s lights out.”
This will be Jonas’ first fight this calendar year, something she plans to use to her advantage.
“Mentally, the break away from boxing allowed me to enjoy life,” she said. “Power is something I’ve always known I had. I know I carry power, but it was changing the shots up that was the issue.
“Everything we believe Terri can bring, I believe we have covered. I believe I’ve turned the clock back to before the Olympics. Mentally, physically and emotionally I’m the best athlete I’ve ever been and on Friday I’m going to show that.
“If I’m not giving it my all, I shouldn’t be here. If I land cleanly, I believe she’ll go.”
Matchroom Boxing’s Fight Camp 2, headlined by Harper vs Jonas, airs live on Sky Sports in the UK and on DAZN in the U.S. on Aug. 7.
Terri Harper believes that Natasha Jonas has everything to prove in their bout on Friday even though her opponent is 13 years older.
Terri Harper believes that Natasha Jonas has everything to prove in their bout on Friday night despite the 13-year age gap with her opponent.
Both Harper and Jonas have 10 professional fights to their names. Harper remains undefeated (10-0, 5 KOs) while 36-year-old Jonas (9-1, 7 KOs) suffered a loss to Brazilian fighter Viviane Obenauf in 2018.
The 23-year-old Harper goes into the fight at Matchroom’s Fight Camp in Brentwood, England, as a unified junior lightweight titleholder, and while she has likely only just started her professional career, the Doncaster fighter speculated that a loss could end Jonas’ time in the ring.
“Tasha, what has she done in her professional career?” Harper asked during an interview with Matchroom. She’s come from the amateurs, as an elite amateur. She’s yet to prove herself, I think the pressure’s on her.
“What’s she gonna do when she takes a loss to me? Is that the end of her career? Is this her last chance to really prove herself?”
Harper explained that she had used the coronavirus lockdown constructively after getting over the disappointment of her originally scheduled fight with Jonas being cancelled as a result of the pandemic.
“Probably four weeks in, that’s when we got the news the fight was canceled. I said to Andrew [Bulcroft, her manager], the weeks we’ve done would go to waste, so I knew I had to carry on training.
“I said that’s what kept me sane for lockdown. It kept me in a routine, the garage set up with a punchbag. I just used the time that we got extra. I put it to good use.”
Harper remarked on her dramatic ascent from working in a chip shop in Doncaster to heading up the card for Fight Camp’s second week, which has seen Matchroom’s HQ turned into an outdoor venue.
She recalled her move into boxing as a teenager, saying: “Football was my first sport. I’ve always been sporty, but when I fell in love with boxing, that’s when I left my football days behind. I just took off with my boxing career.
“Here I am. Boxing won.”
Harper expressed disbelief at the rapid transformation in her fortunes after giving up work in a takeaway.
“I’ve gone from working in a chip shop to boxing on the main stage. I just want to inspire the younger generation,” he said. “For me, being in this situation, I never would have dreamed it in a million of years. I’ve popped out of nowhere, WBC champion.
“Four years I spent learning how to fry and cook fish. Here I am, getting in all these hotel rooms up and down the country, and it’s a bit surreal. On the main stage getting recognized in places.
“I was just a girl working in the chip shop.”
Matchroom Boxing’s Fight Camp 2, headlined by Harper vs Jonas, airs live on DAZN in the U.S. and Sky Sports in the UK on Aug. 7.
Eddie Hearm reportedly has a plan in place to restart boxing in July on the grounds of Matchroom Boxing’s U.K. headquarters.
Eddie Hearm reportedly has a plan in place to restart boxing in July on the grounds of Matchroom Boxing’s U.K. headquarters.
The Daily Mail is reporting that Hearn intends to stage five-fight outdoor cards on four consecutive Saturdays beginning in mid-July on the promotional company’s property in Brentwood, Essex, outside London.
The first main event will be a title fight between Terri Harper and Natasha Jonas, according to the report. A heavyweight fight between Dillian Whyte and Alexander Povetkin will be featured on the final show.
Only 90 people will be on site because of coronavirus restrictions. No spectators will be allowed.
“Financially this will be painful for us but after the momentum we have worked so hard to build over the past 10 years, I’m not going to let boxing just dribble back,” Hearn said. “While other guys go with arena and empty studios, ours will look very different.
“Just imagine it. It is summer, the house is all lit up, you can see Canary Wharf in the distance and fireworks are going off. Then over the hill walk Dillan Whyte and Alexander Povetkin for a massive tear up on my lawn.
“World championship boxing in my garden? Oh, go on then.”
A heavyweight clash between Dillian Whyte (left) and Alexander Povetkin will be featured in a series of fights targeted for July and August. Mark Robinson / Matchroom Boxing
The series has a working title of “Matchroom Fight Camp.”
“We cannot just bring boxing back with a dark studio,” Hearn said. “We have built our product on the razzmatazz, the sexiness and the drama. It has all been about building that moment for a fight, so we cannot afford to just bring people out like a game show.
“We want to create a gladiatorial environment that ill not only ensure compelling viewing but will also ensure fighters can perform at the highest level.”
He went on: “It is a huge mission. We are going to turn our headquarters here into an outdoor venue for live boxing, with a full canopy in the middle of the garden and the ring overlooking London. We are building changing rooms for the fighters, setting up a space for a ring walk, and figuring out how we can do everything you need for this kind of production with as few people as possible.
“… We are in talks with a nearby hotel about taking control of it for each of the weeks. The way it will work is everyone involved — the fighters, their teams, the broadcasters — will go into the hotel on Tuesday and the fighter and their team will go to a testing facility at the hotel. You will go in, get tested, be handed a room key and go straight to your room, where you will wait until you get the result of the test.
“The tests are comprehensive and they take 24 hours, so the fighter will stay in their room until they get a call from our doctors, likely on the Wednesday, with their results. If they are positive, they will leave the hotel immediately. If they are not, they are able to leave their room and take part in the obligations of fight week, all with social distancing.
“Everyone involved in the show, from top to bottom, will have to go through that process before they are allowed on to our premises. In terms of fight-week promotion, that is the other side of the challenge. How do you do the media around it? Obviously we cannot have dozens of journalists turning up and sitting shoulder to shoulder for a presser and a weigh-in like normal.
“So we need to decide how it will go. It is likely that Zoom interviews and social media live streams with the fighters and journalists will be the new norm, and pumping out clips of the fighters around the clock, building up to the weigh-ins on the grounds on Fridays and the fights on Saturdays.”
Hearn is still working out details with government and health authorities.
