Eddie Hearn: Terri Harper’s challenge to Rhiannon Dixon could be final roll of the dice

Eddie Hearn believes that Terri Harper’s career could be on the line when she challenges Rhiannon Dixon for the WBO lightweight title on August 24. The two will box at Manchester’s new Co-op Live Arena on the undercard of the super lightweight fight between Jack Catterall and Regis Prograis. 

Whereas Dixon, 10-0 (1 KO), only graduated to world class by outpointing Karen Carbajal to win the vacant title in April, Harper, 14-2-2 (6 KOs), has been competing at the highest level for years. 

“Terri Harper has been around for a long time. I still see her as a young fighter in the sport but she was really there at the emergence of big time women’s boxing in this country. She’s a former unified champion, a two division champion and she’s looking to become a three-division world champion,” Hearn said.

“Rhiannon Dixon is on a sharp rise. She’s young and she’s improving all the time. For Terri, she has to win the fight. That might be it if she doesn’t win. She may say that herself as well.”

In 2021, Harper lost her IBF super featherweight title after being knocked out by Alycia Baumgardner. She made a quick stop at lightweight before the opportunity to box Hannah Rankin for the WBA super welterweight title tempted her to add 20 pounds to her frame.

Harper outboxed the Scot and defended the title against the decent Ivana Habazin before settling for a disappointing majority draw with Cecila Braekhus. The 27-year-old admitted to feeling the weight difference against the experienced “First Lady” and elected to drop down to welterweight but was ruthlessly stopped by an impressive Sandy Ryan in a WBO title bid in March. 

If the fight is indeed a make or break night for Harper, Hearn believes that making her way back down to lightweight gives her the best chance of adding another chapter to her successful career.

“She has to win. She’s got huge experience over Rhiannon Dixon and I think she’s going to be much better at 135 pounds. It’s all very well going from 130 to 154 pounds but you’re just not the same,” he said.

“135 pounds will be tough for her, especially after putting on that size and that muscle but she’s definitely going to have the size advantage over Rhiannon. Rhiannon has the freshness. It’s a great fight and the perfect fight to make.”