Former world champion Terri Harper used all her experience and ring nous to take the play away from Rhiannon Dixon during most of the 10 rounds they shared in Sheffield tonight (September 28). She then took away Dixon’s WBO lightweight belt, winning a decision by scores of 97-93, 97-93 and 96-94.

Harper, a one-time champion at super-featherweight, got off to the better start and immediately her footwork was giving Dixon, the more aggressive of the two, all manner of problems.

It was, in truth, a messy affair early, with too many clinches and too much stalling, but Harper was the one doing the cleaner work on the whole.

Dixon’s best moment arrived in round six when she caught Harper with a solid right hook counter from the southpaw stance. Suddenly Harper’s mind flashed back to when she was stopped by Alycia Baumgardner with a similar shot. Caught high, she froze momentarily, and this allowed Dixon to follow up with further shots, landing several right hooks soon after.

From that point on the quality of the fight improved, with both women tired but now doing a lot less clinching. It was almost as if the nervous energy had dissipated in the second half and with it went the need to hold on or kill time.

In the end, though, despite Dixon coming on strong in round six, as well as in a couple of subsequent rounds, there was always a feeling that Harper was the one dictating the pace and flow of the fight.

“That’s the best win of my career,” Harper, now 15-2-2 (6), said afterwards. “This camp’s been a long one but I’ve become a new fighter mentally and physically.

“We saw that Rhiannon likes to lead off so we worked a lot on counters. There was one point where I got caught by a good shot and I had to really dig deep. But I managed to regain my senses and get back to work.

“This is what I needed. I’d probably fallen out of love with the sport and I needed that bit of fire to get me going in the gym. For me to get this is everything I have ever wanted.”