Caroline Dubois revealed she woke up with a severe illness on the day she faced Terri Harper, but still went on to score a unanimous decision victory at Kensington’s Olympia on Sunday.
Dubois dropped Harper during the fight and unified Harper’s WBO lightweight title with her own WBC championship. Despite dealing with the physical threats posed by Harper, Dubois said she had also been struck down by a bad flu on fight day.
“Today I woke up with the worst flu I ever had. I was [thinking] today of all days, this has happened,” Dubois said after the fight. “Waking up today not feeling 100 per cent, I’ve been walking around with a cold towel over my head, wrapped around my neck. I was feeling not the best and I was just telling myself to pace this fight. This was a test. I pushed through and I was able to get the victory.”
Now a unified world champion, Dubois said the 10-round test against Harper will be valuable experience. “It was really tricky because she was a lot smarter than I thought she was going to be. She’s smart and she’s experienced. She knows how to get through a fight. She knows how to box,” the Londoner said. “I’ve only been in the ring 13 times [as a pro fighter] and I’m still working out how to navigate the rounds, navigate the pressure and all that stuff. But I think I did okay. I know if I had pushed the fight and pressed the fight I would have taken her out, but it was experience. I give her credit, she was very smart, she was trying to be as smart as she could.”
Nakisa Bidarian, co-founder of Most Valuable Promotions, said she would like to match Dubois with Katie Taylor, the two-weight undisputed champion and Olympic gold medallist. “My dream scenario is for Caroline to be the last dance partner for Katie Taylor,” Bidarian said. “Maybe Katie Taylor seizes an opportunity to, not pass the baton, but give Caroline the opportunity to take the baton from her. I think that will be a massive fight at Croke Park.”
Dubois welcomed the idea but said she is not expecting it. “I’ve got a lot of time for Katie, I think she’s a legend. If she said, ‘Caroline Dubois, let’s do this’, she wants to test herself against me, I would jump at the opportunity. Who wouldn’t? Who honestly would say no to Katie Taylor? She’s a legend it would be an honour to step in the ring with her.”
However, Dubois made clear her immediate target is American champion Alycia Baumgardner. “We’ll see who truly is the best. That’s the fight I want by the end of the year. There’s no need to waste time. There’s no need to mess around. Let’s make it happen, the best versus the best, there’s 5lb difference [in weight]. She’s older than me, she’s more experienced than me, let’s see. That’s the fight I want. I would take it over a unification bout. I know she’s going to run a mile from this fight. If she wants to say I can do more, I’ll have another unification. The biggest fight in women’s boxing, I want that fight. I want Alycia, I want her next.”
Dubois scored a sixth-round knockdown against Harper and leaves the unification with both the WBC and WBO lightweight titles and fresh momentum as she looks to make the next big step in her career.