Hopewell vs Ferenczi: The New Beginning

Hopewell vs Ferenczi: The New Beginning

‘The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.’

Rarely does anything ever stay the same in life. In boxing, the percentages drop even lower.

Towards the end of 2021, Nicola Hopewell started to think that change was needed to give life to a boxing career that had largely stalled in recent times. It would have been easier in many ways to stay where she was. As the lyrics to her walkout song say:

‘I used to bite my tongue and hold my breath. Scared to rock the boat and make a mess. So I sat quietly, agreed politely. I guess that I forgot I had a choice.’

But the realisation was eventually reached, that she needed to move on. Hopewell told me last year that she didn’t want to have no regrets when her career is over. A decision was reached for the sake of her career. Sometimes in life, you have to think of yourself and not others. Hopewell did what was best for her. And something has now changed in Hopewell. There is now a spark that wasn’t there before. And hope. On Friday, August 26th her boxing hibernation ends.

At around the same time that her beloved Sheffield United will be playing away against Luton Town, Hopewell will be gracing Bramall Lane and a British Boxing Board of Control ring for the very first time.

Hopewell 30, who only started boxing when she was 23, will bring speed, precision, and no little power to her new world. Hidden elsewhere in another boxing scene, Hopewell has finally landed where she should have been much sooner. Hopewell will now be seen and given the coverage her talents deserve. A few words in next week’s trade paper Boxing News will be a little bucket list moment finally ticked off. She will hope for more as her career advances. In truth, Hopewell expects. Demands even.

With family and friends seated at ringside, Hopewell will have a near-home crowd. It will be a night and a fight that will be one of nervous excitement.

The Worksop super-flyweight gets her first taste of life on the other side against the experienced Slovakian Claudia Ferenczi in Sheffield. The perfect opponent for her new beginning. Ferenczi will likely stay the course. Hopewell just needs to win. Anything else will be a bonus. And impressive.