Derby’s Sandy Ryan successfully defends her WBO World Welterweight title against Denaby’s Terri Harper, after Harper’s team throw in the towel between rounds 4 and 5.
It wasn’t meant to be for Harper who after a close opening round just couldn’t seem to answer Ryan’s spiteful blows in the penultimate fight of Matchroom Boxing‘s Smith vs Zepeda card.
The 2 British fighters were formerly sparring partners and Ryan seemingly teased the dominant performance earlier this week in an interview with International Boxing News where she said:
“Sparring is sparring but you kind of know when you’ve done a lot of rounds…we were sparring for 2 or 3 weeks and you kind of know what’s what, [Harper] knows what’s what.”
Harper traded little in rounds 2 through 4, trying her best to defend herself against Ryan’s relentless attacks, but it became quickly apparent that Ryan was far too strong for her at 147lb.
Nonetheless, I was surprised to see Harper’s team call the fight so early on, given it was a World Championship contest, but of course a fighter’s wellbeing should always be prioritised and it’s the corner’s responsibility to recognise when their fighter needs protecting from unnecessary punishment.
After the fight, Harper’s trainer Stefy Bull took to Instagram to congratulate Ryan:
“Congratulations @sandyryan93
We appreciate the opportunity, fantastic performance 👏🏻 since Terri jumped up in weights she’s accepted every challenge presented. Just wasn’t big enough to keep Sandy off tonight. Terri is in good spirits. When all said and done it’s just a Job. Time to go back to her natural weight division 135lb thanks to @eddiehearn @matchroomboxing who’s helped me change a young girls life #Boxing“
This is an interesting statement considering Harper is currently a World Champion at 154lb, so perhaps this means the team plan on vacating the belt and setting their sights on the heavily-competitive lightweight division, of which 3 of the belts are currently held by Katie Taylor and the other two are vacant. This might mean more all-British clashes with Caroline Dubois and Rhiannon Dixon could be on the cards for her.
Meanwhile Ryan has a plethora of options in front of her. She has unfinished business after her controversial draw against WBA, WBC & The Ring World Champion Jessica McCaskill or she might fancy the likes of IBF World Champion Natasha Jonas, former super featherweight World Champion Mikaela Mayer, or former Team GB teammate and Olympic gold medallist Lauren Price.
Both Ryan and Harper are in the primes of their careers and almost certainly have more big nights in store in the near future.