Terri Harper Exclusive: The Road to Undisputed

South Yorkshire’s first professional female boxer has not looked back since leaving her job at Denaby’s fish and chip shop.

While most have understandably struggled in a chaotic 2020, Harper has thrived and kicked off the year with a career-defining win against Eva Wahlstrom to become a unified world champion holding the IBO and WBC belts.

The Super-Featherweight has since made two successful defenses of her titles. The first against renowned Olympian Natasha Jonas in a tightly contested battle at Matchroom’s fight camp. Harper’s most recent outing saw her face-off against former WBC interim titleholder Katarina Thanderz last month where she scored an emphatic TKO win to continue her undefeated hot streak.

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As she continues down the road to becoming undisputed at 130lbs, ‘Belter’ spoke with me about the breakthrough year she has had and eyed up future opponents to take on in 2021.

“Coming off the fight with [Jonas] I was questioning myself”

“But when I put on the performance and finished Thanderz it made me realize I do deserve to be at this level”

A change that Harper made after her tear up with Jonas was bringing in strength & conditioning coach Danny Wilson who prepared her for her third and final fight of this year.

“I feel like Danny is more than a strength and conditioning coach, he understands a lot and always has good advice to give me.

“He was a god send in the last camp and it was the best decision we have made as a team to get Danny on board, he definitely took me to the next level.”

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The convincing victory from the Doncaster-native last month came at the expense of a broken hand that required surgery.

“We have said in the gym that we are blaming Danny for me breaking my hand, he has made me too strong” Harper joked.

Fans saw the killer instinct of the Stonewall Sport Champion last time out now the question looms of who will she be applying it to next year?

“A rematch [with Jonas] is in the contract so when it happens it happens, for now I want to do what was originally planned and fight these other champions to become undisputed.

“I want Mayer’s belt but hopefully I fight [Hyun-mi] Choi next. Eddie [Hearn] made that signing so that should be an easier fight to make”

Undoubtedly Harper’s schedule will be just as busy in 2021 as it was this year with more unification showdowns on the horizon.

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After having made history as the co-main event on the first ever women’s triple header card, the 24-year-old spoke on the attention women’s boxing has recently been receiving and what it means to her to be a front-runner for this scene.

“Women’s boxing is growing by the minute and now is a very special time to be a part of it.

“In a few years when I am retired and fat it can be something that I can look back on and say, ‘I was a part of that’” Harper said with a grin.

“I have always said Katie [Taylor] is the reason I’m doing what I’m doing today…so if I can be the reason why a girl went out to chase her dreams and change her life then that’s mission accomplished”.

Assuredly, Harper will continue to inspire many during her endeavor of becoming the undisputed Super-Featherweight Queen. The next chapter of this journey starts next year and should be something all boxing fans are eager for.

Follow her exciting journey on Instagram here.