When Britain’s Caroline Dubois defends her world title on Sunday at Olympia, she will be edging closer to the finish line in a packed race to become the No 1 female boxer in the world.
Dubois meets her domestic rival, Terri Harper, in defence of the WBC’s lightweight belt; it is a rare fight in the women’s boxing business, a clash with genuine rivalry between two boxers with proper experience, and both holding world titles.
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Harper has been in 10 world title fights at four weights in the last six years, and she enters Sunday’s fight as the WBO lightweight champion. She has held world titles at super-featherweight and super-welterweight – two weights separated by 24lb – since giving up her job as a potato peeler in a local chippie.
Dubois is unbeaten in 13 fights, and she has set her sights on becoming undisputed at lightweight and then moving up through the weights – or waiting for a fight with the leading American, Alycia Baumgardner. Dubois is in an elite group chasing the elusive title of women’s No 1, which is currently held by Katie Taylor, who is planning a farewell fight later this year in Dublin.
“She is certainly a good talker,” said Harper when the pair came face to face recently.
Last December, Dubois switched promoters and signed a deal with Most Valuable Promotions (MVP), the American company run by Jake Paul and his business partner, Nakisa Bidarian. The Sunday show at Olympia is MVP’s first in Britain and marks Sky Sports’s return to boxing in a valuable and necessary partnership. The Olympia card features eight female fights, four for world titles.
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Harper and Dubois could be the start of a series of all-British fights, the type that the women’s sport needs; genuine rivalries are essential. It should, in theory, be easier in women’s boxing to make big fights happen, because so many of the boxers have been prepared to move across the weights with an ease that is lacking in the men’s business.
Also on Sunday at Olympia, Chantelle Cameron, who beat Taylor in 2023, moves up two weights to fight for the vacant WBO super-welterweight title.
Chantelle Cameron (right) traded wins with Katie Taylor in 2023 (Peter Morrison/AP)
She would, if the fight was available, move down for a sensible and lucrative domestic fight at a lower weight. Bidarian has made it clear in the past that being part of MVP doesn’t exclude or protect a fighter from meeting other MVP boxers in risky fights.
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Harper and Dubois are both part of the MVP business, and that has helped make the fight happen. It had been talked about for a couple of years, and too often in the modern boxing business there have been rivalries that never led to fights, due to separate rivalries between promoters and broadcasters. This has shifted slightly during the last two years with the increased involvement and influence of the Saudi Arabian boxing enterprise and their cash.
Nakisa Bidarian (left) with Ellie Scotney ahead of Sunday’s Sky Sports show (Mark Robinson MVP)
It is an extraordinary weekend for women’s boxing, on which Dubois will be one of six British women in five world-title fights; the five bouts will involve a total of 11 world championship belts.
On Saturday night in Cardiff, Lauren Price defends her three welterweight belts live on the BBC. On the same Olympia bill as Dubois, and from the same gym in east London, Ellie Scotney will try to add the WBA belt to the three she owns and become the undisputed champion at super-bantamweight. It is the comeback women’s boxing needed.
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