Rival tensions flared ahead of Sunday’s lightweight unification when Terri Harper appeared to jab Caroline Dubois with an elbow during photos after the final press conference, prompting Dubois to shove back and security to step in and separate them.
The exchange followed a spirited face-off in which Dubois flexed directly in front of Harper. The WBO and WBC lightweight champions have been building heat as they prepare to meet at Kensington’s Olympia, live on Sky Sports.
Dubois dismissed Harper’s behaviour as imitation. “She’s trying to replicate me,” she told Sky Sports. “She’s trying to pretend. She’s seeing my energy and going ‘I need to fight against this. I need to go against it’. She’s trying to be me. I don’t want to read into that. That’s not important. What’s important is the fight night. Coming up here today I feel very confident, very confident.” Convinced Harper is intimidated, Dubois added, “100 percent.” During the staredown she says she kept a single message in mind: “I was saying: ‘I’m coming. I’m coming.’ That’s it. That’s the energy. I’m that nightmare. I’m that bogeywoman. I’m something that is on her mind and I’m coming.”
Trainer Shane McGuigan said the confrontation will only sharpen Dubois. “She loves it. She absolutely loves it,” he told Sky Sports. “I don’t think she needs any fire in this fight. It’s just going to elicit a little more hunger if there is any.”
On Harper, McGuigan credited her with showing backbone but suggested the English fighter may be better suited at lightweight after campaigns at heavier weights. “Terri… I think she had to show a little bit of backbone because she knew that she was under attack. It’s good that she’s up for a fight,” he said, noting Harper looked weight-drained when she faced Alycia Baumgardner and that the stoppage by Sandy Ryan came from accumulation. “I think this weight will suit her more. She was too small for 147lbs and I think she boxed as high as 154lbs. I believe that she’ll be the best prepared she’s been and she can be awkward, so we’ve got to break it down slowly.”
On Dubois’s finishing ability, McGuigan warned Harper will feel the impact if Dubois lands clean. “I think when she lands clean she’ll definitely have an impact. Whether she’ll knock her out or not, we might have to start putting some combinations and phases together. She wants to clean up the division and make big fights.”
The champions will settle it in the ring on Sunday. Watch Caroline Dubois vs Terri Harper live on Sky Sports from 7pm.