Terri Harper lost her composure ahead of Sunday’s world title unification, according to rival champion Caroline Dubois, after Harper jostled Dubois with her elbow during photo duties following their final press conference. Dubois pushed her back angrily and security stepped between them to prevent escalation.
The incident came after Dubois flexed in front of Harper during face-offs, with tensions rising as the WBO and WBC lightweight champions prepare to meet at Kensington’s Olympia, live on Sky Sports.
Dubois scoffed at Harper’s behaviour. “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 afraid, Dubois added: “100 percent.” During the staredown she said she kept up a personal message: “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 believes the pushing and needling will only fuel Dubois. “She loves it. She absolutely loves it,” McGuigan 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 said: “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 noted Harper may be better suited at lightweight after previous bouts at higher weights: “I do think she [Harper] was a bit weight-drained when she boxed Alycia [Baumgardner]. I think this weight will suit her more. Sandy Ryan obviously stopped her, that was an accumulation of punches. I think she will hold a better shot, it’s probably her more natural weight at lightweight. 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 power, McGuigan said: “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.”
Watch Caroline Dubois vs Terri Harper this Sunday live on Sky Sports from 7pm.