Harper vs. Jonas: The Ladies Steal the Show, Score Massive Win for Women’s Boxing

The Fighting News

August 8, 2020

Natasha Jonas (9-1-1, 7 KOs) took umbrage as the scorecards declared her performance a split decision draw. The thirty-six year-old carried her best self into a championship contest against Terri Harper (10-0-1, 5 KOs), a WBC and IBO title holder thirteen years her junior. As a teenager in the UK, Terri Harper looked up to Natasha Jonas, the 2012 Olympian with a long and celebrated amateur career.

“She’s done everything asked of her. She’s beaten people I couldn’t. She’s beaten experienced girls like Eva Wahlstrom. She’s took the title, she’s got the title, and I’ve just got to take that off her,” Jonas said in a pre-fight interview. The event will go down in history as the first world-title contest between two British female boxers.

Honoring her words, on August 7th at Matchroom Fight Camp in Brentwood, Essex, England, Jonas fought Terri Harper with discipline and conviction, and Harper did likewise. The event displayed all facets of a classic matchup- two athletes, evenly matched, providing non-stop action for ten rounds. In other words, this was a boxing fan’s fight. Adding to the excitement, most of the exchanges took place on the inside.  Vicious uppercuts and body shots, some connecting and some avoided, took their toll on both women.

There was a crescendo to the ebb and flow, the back and forth, which picked up in the middle rounds and peaked in the eighth with a right hook from Jonas that stunned Harper, forcing her to clinch while she recovered. Then in the ninth, Jonas landed another hard shot that buckled Harper’s legs. But this was no one-sided contest. As far as female championship fights go, this was not Serrano vs. Hardy. This was not Shields vs. Hammer. In fact, the last title fight between two women that was this competitive and this exciting took place in 2015, when two-time World Champion Maureen Shea battled IBF Champion Yulihan Luna, another dogfight with a similar outcome.

So how did this particular contest end? In true champion fashion, Harper took to the final round with every ounce of energy she had left. Jonas, ahead in my opinion, was just one winning exchange, one more hard shot away from absolutely securing a victory. But that shot never came, and fatigue seemed to overtake her in the final round. The judges awarded scores of 96-94 for Harper, 96-95 Jonas, and an even 95-95.  And while Jonas may have experienced some initial frustration, boxing fans across the world anticipate the rematch.   

By Matt Benoliel