It’s been a rollercoaster 6 months for Worksop’s Nicola Hopewell. The flyweight has faced some of the highest highs and the lowest lows of her professional career.
This weekend, however, she’s fully focused on the task at hand: becoming Commonwealth Flyweight Champion.
Loss to Emma Dolan
On Friday 6th October 2023 at the Park Community Arena in Sheffield, it was heartbreak for Hopewell as she suffered the first professional defeat of her career to Commonwealth Super Flyweight Champion Emma Dolan.
Now that’s she’s had several months to reflect on the loss, Hopewell shared that she’s grateful for its teachings.
“One of the big learnings from that was that I’m in the wrong weight class…”
“On the night, I just think the better girl won to be honest. Her reach advantage was more than what I expected. One of the big learnings from that was that I’m in the wrong weight class, so I have dropped down to flyweight now.
“I felt like I could always flip between the two, super flyweight and flyweight, because I didn’t see it as much of a difference in the weights. But then when you take into consideration the Wednesday before weigh-in, these girls at super flyweight, they’re coming down from probably 55kg, weighing in, and then going back up.
“I just need to do that little bit of dieting now and go down to flyweight and have the advantages of being one of the bigger girls in the category.”
The realisation about her weight category means that Hopewell isn’t actively pursuing a rematch with Dolan, although the Worksop prospect teased ‘never say never’ if the right opportunity came along as she believes she now knows how to correct her mistakes.
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The World Title Fight That Almost Happened
In a bid to keep busy, Hopewell had a successful run out against Hungary’s Kata Pap on a small hall show in Bradford. It was a comfortable win, the confidence booster she needed to reaffirm her potential, but the last thing she expected less than three weeks later was an opportunity to fight unified bantamweight world champion Dina Thorslund.
It was late on an otherwise normal Wednesday evening when Hopewell received a call from her Coach to tell her she’d been offered a last-minute opportunity to fight that weekend.
Fighting the WBC and WBO world champion of the division two above her natural fighting weight, Hopewell was initially conflicted.
“I could have walked away as the unified bantamweight champion of the world!”
“Dina Thorslund is probably one of the strongest bantamweights…I was thinking, Well I spar heavier girls. Like I spar Ebanie [Bridges], she’s a bantamweight. How can I say no and not have this opportunity?
“We decided that we’d go but if at any point I got in trouble, the towels going in. [My coach] was 100% going to look after me. It was one of those ‘What if?’ moments. What if I had a really good night? What if she had an off night? I could have walked away as the unified bantamweight champion of the world!”
Unfortunately for Hopewell, she’d missed the deadline to complete a weight check by a couple of hours. This is a rule enforced by the British Boxing Board of Control to prevent dangerous weight cutting prior to fights, however in this case, Hopewell sat comfortably at the bottom of the bantamweight category and planned to put weight on, so it’s hard not to empathise with her.
“The positive I have taken out of the whole situation is those sanctioning bodies sanctioned me. They looked at me, sanctioned me to fight for those world titles so hopefully if an opportunity comes at my own weight category it’ll get sanctioned again.”
Commonwealth Title Fight
After an eventful start to the year, things are continuing to look up again for Hopewell who now has her sights set on the Commonwealth Flyweight title this weekend. This time, it’s Bournemouth’s Gemma Ruegg (7-10-1) who stands in her way.
“I feel like I’ve upped my game a lot. Camp’s been a lot better as well because last time, for the Emma fight, the camp was stop-start all the time and then this one’s just been straight through, it’s been very straightforward, I know what I need to do. So, I think preparations have gone better as well.”
Ruegg’s losing record is not indicative of the threat she poses to Hopewell. She has faced many of the top fighters in the UK including Chloe Watson, Shannon Ryan, and Maisey Rose Courtney.
“She’s an experienced girl…She’s been on the TV shows as well, so nothing’ll phase her. Like, we’ve got the press conference and weigh-ins and stuff, but obviously she’s done it at a much higher level.
“I know she’s experienced, I know that she’s come-forward all the time but I just I feel like what we’ve been doing in the gym, I feel like I can answer everything that she’s got to throw at me.”
Hoping to set the record straight on Saturday, Hopewell knows this fight could be life changing. After all, her former opponent Emma Dolan is now scheduled to make her Matchroom debut in her first fight since Hopewell, with both the British and Commonwealth Super Flyweight titles on the line.
“Once I get this Commonwealth title, I think it’ll just open a few more doors and I think we might get some bigger fights.
“I don’t like calling people out. I just need to see what titles are available and who I can challenge, or if there’s any vacant titles.”
Watch Nicola Hopewell vs Gemma Ruegg on talkSPORT’s YouTube channel.