Nicola Hopewell: “I went in there thinking nothing would stop me this time.”

Nicola Hopewell: “I went in there thinking nothing would stop me this time.”

The scars of battle were plainly visible. Two deep cuts that required multiple stitches greeted me over Zoom less than forty-eight hours after a fight that had earned Nicola Hopewell her first professional title.

But those superficial wounds are, in many ways, a badge of honour. The scars will soon fade away, but that Commonwealth flyweight title she won on Saturday night courtesy of a points victory over the tough Gemma Ruegg will be forever hers.

“I’ve watched it back twice,” Hopewell says of her fight with Ruegg. “Once, when I got back in on Saturday night and again yesterday.”

The scores were unanimous in her favour. Two judges saw it comfortably for the Worksop fighter, but one card was a surprise to the new champion.

“I thought the first scorecard 96-94 was a little bit close. I was a bit shocked. I didn’t see the fight being that close.”

Hopewell served up the best performance of her six-fight professional career against Ruegg at the Magna Centre in Rotherham. A fight she just simply had to win.

“I think it was my best performance so far,” Hopewell told FightPost. “Not just because I won the Commonwealth title. But I also showed some of the things we have been working on in training, and I stuck to our game plan, and I adapted it when I needed to. My mindset was better, and I was mentally better prepared. I had been ten rounds in the fight with Emma, and I had experienced the pressure of a title fight. I’ve lost before, and I didn’t want to experience that feeling again.

“I was pleased with my performance. I’d give myself 8/10, I know I have still got a few things to work on. When I watched it back, I felt I looked quite sharp and really quick. I stuck to the game plan most of the time. I got in and threw my shots, and then I got back out again. I went to the body but I could have thrown more body shots. There were a few times that I thought I rattled her a little bit.”

Despite the unanimous scorecards, Ruegg more than made Hopewell work for her victory. A rough fight that left Hopewell with a few little facial reminders of her twenty minutes in the ring with the Bournemouth veteran. But the new champion was fully prepared for the experience.

“Gemma was what I expected her to be. I knew that she would come forward all the time and be there. The only thing I thought differently was when she fought Maisey Rose Courtney she came out really quick and threw a load of punches all at once. I expected her to come out like that against me. But she came out the way she had against Gangloff and Shannon Courtenay. We thought she was going to go the other way.”

Make no mistake, it was a high-pressure fight for Hopewell. The defeat to Emma Dolan six months ago in a failed bid for the Commonwealth super-flyweight title could be excused as a night where she found out the higher weight division wasn’t for her. But a second career reversal would have left her facing an uncertain future. But despite fleeting thoughts of another defeat, the mindset was very much one of winning.

“I went in there thinking nothing would stop me this time,” Hopewell says of her pre-fight thoughts. “Losing does cross your mind. Where do I go if I do lose to Gemma? No disrespect to her, but if I did lose where do I go then because everyone else has beaten her. So that did go through my mind a little bit.”

With no sparring allowed for twenty-eight days due to the cuts she suffered on Saturday night, Hopewell will likely not return to action until July at the earliest. But when she does return, there are numerous options available to her. The former amateur victim, Maisey-Rose Courtney, is an obvious possibility. But so too is the European flyweight champion Chloe Watson.

“I will have to see what fight my team gets for me next,” Hopewell says of who she might fight next. “But a fight with either Maisey or Chloe would seem the logical next step before the end of the year. But I’d like to defend my title before that. But I would be interested in fighting Chloe for her European title. I’m not running away from a fight with Maisey, but it would have to be on a Matchroom card, and I feel I would be two rounds down before the fight even starts. It would be a good opportunity for sure, but Maisey would need to get a belt first. It could be for the British title, but I wouldn’t just fight her for my title.” 

There was emotion in the air immediately after her hand was raised in victory. Fighting back tears of joy and no little relief. In many ways, a defeat to Ruegg was unthinkable. But the victory over Ruegg has given Hopewell leverage. And a target on her back. The phone will ring. Courtney and Watson will fancy wearing that Commonwealth bauble. It makes sense for all, especially if Watson and Courtney fight each other first as seems likely. But Nicola Hopewell has now earned the right to pick her poison. What a difference one win makes. Her career now has life. And plenty of it.

Photo Credit: GBM Sports