Terri Harper Wins Third Division World Title

Terri Harper Wins Third Division World Title

Encounters in previous battles were key.

Terri Harper proved to Rhiannon Dixon that winning a WBO welterweight world title and keeping it are extremely difficult as she lifted it by unanimous decision to become a three-division champion on Saturday.

Harper (15-2-2, 6 KOs) showed Dixon (10-1, 1 KO) the subtleties and nuances at boxing’s elite level before an enthusiastic crowd at Sheffield, England. The former super featherweight and super welterweight titlist adds the lightweight title to her coffers.

Dixon discovered that experience counts.

Immediately Harper unraveled a planned defensive tactic to lure the frenetic moving Dixon into her counter right cross. It stopped the charges immediately.

Dixon, whose herky-jerky southpaw movements caused problems to other foes, could not rattle Harper who had faced numerous world champions in the past such as Cecilia Braekhus, Alycia Baumgardner and Sandy Ryan.

Patience was the key.

After some adjustments were made by Dixon, the lightweight match turned into a session of feints and clinches. Harper was able to manipulate the exchanges inside as Dixon tried to seek a solution.

In the latter rounds Dixon attacked the body with some heavy blows that seemed to open up more paths for her heavy blows. Right hooks did damage to Harper who was forced to hold.

“I got caught by a shot,” admitted Harper.

Once again Harper dipped into her vast trunk of experience and began blasting accurate shots with her rights and lefts. Though Dixon was not stunned, they snapped back the defending champions head violently.

Knowing she was behind, Dixon opened up her attack and so did Harper. Both exchanged heavy blows with neither relenting or surrendering. Each had bloody noses and each had energy in reserve for the last two frantic rounds.

After 10 rounds, all three judges saw it in favor of Harper 97-93 twice and 96-94.

“For me, its my best performance so far,” said Harper.

Promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing predicts her win will lead to other pivotal matchups against the top lightweights in the world such as Katie Taylor, Amanda Serrano or Caroline Dubois.

“She made history tonight,” Hearn said.

Other Bouts

Super bantamweight standout Peter McGrail (10-1, 6 KOs) stopped Brad Foster (15-4-2) with a left hand body shot to the liver for a win by knockout at 1:08 of the second round.

Middleweight prospect George Liddell (9-0, 6 KOs) beat George Davey (9-2-1) to the punch with an overhand right that dropped the fellow British fighter in the fifth round. Though he beat the count a subsequent right by Liddell forced the referee to halt the match at 2:20 of the fifth round.

Olympic gold medalist Galal Yafai (8-0, 6 KOs) took a chance against Mexico’s Sergio Orozco (9-9) with a major fight against former world champion Sunny Edwards looming in November. He emerged unscathed, winning by knockout in the third round with a perfect four-punch combination knockdown. Though Orozco beat the count the referee stopped the fight at 1:49 of the third round.

Photo credit: Mark Robinson / Matchroom

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