Joe Gallagher: “The Terri Harper fight won’t happen and it never will happen.”

Joe Gallagher: “The Terri Harper fight won’t happen and it never will happen.”

I last interviewed Joe Gallagher last year not long after Natasha Jonas had lost narrowly to Katie Taylor. Jonas had long dreamed of becoming a world champion, it was why she returned to the sport in 2017 after injury had curtailed her Olympic aspirations for 2016. It was her second unsuccessful attempt to be crowned a world champion after that controversial draw with Terri Harper the previous year at Fight Camp. Despite calls to rematch Taylor, it did appear that Jonas had indeed run out of chances. And time. But Gallagher was still hopeful and told me:

“It would be a shame if Natasha Jonas didn’t get to become a world champion.”

But a year on, everything has changed. Jonas has found that inner peace she desired. And deserved. The status as world champion was finally achieved on that emotional night in February. Third-time lucky, the last throw of the dice, defeat to Chris Namus for the vacant WBO super-welterweight title in Manchester and retirement would have followed make no mistake about that. But Jonas blasted out Namus in two rounds and has since followed it up with impressive wins over Patricia Berghult and Marie-Eve Dicaire to claim the WBC and IBF world titles. That quite incredible turnaround in fortunes for his fighter isn’t lost on Gallagher:

“Three world titles in nine months, two world titles in ten weeks. The WBC title in September and then the IBF and the Ring Magazine belt in November. For Natasha to be sat here now as the number one in her division and the Ring Magazine champion is a phenomenal achievement and I am really proud of her.”

The world titles aren’t the only thing that has changed for Jonas. An offer with Matchroom was rejected when Boxxer and Sky came calling with a multi-layered deal that was too good to turn down. Jonas gave Matchroom an opportunity to match the deal. They wouldn’t or couldn’t, and Jonas left for pastures new. Jonas has always had issues with how she was previously valued, and with Boxxer, she finally found what she was looking for:

“With Sky, Ben Shalom and Boxxer getting behind her Natasha felt a sense of belonging and a sense that she could go on and achieve big things,” Gallagher told me. “It gave Natasha the support and the confidence to push on. She said to Ben if you give me the opportunity I will deliver and that is what she has done.

“Natasha was brought in as the away fighter, as the name for Terri Harper to have on her record, and that didn’t happen. And the same with Katie Taylor, people thought Katie would give her a beating and that didn’t happen. There was only one round that separated that fight, the 9th round. Natasha has had setbacks her whole life, her football career and everything else. She is very strong-minded, level-headed, focussed and a very good athlete. She is also an inspiration to everyone in that if you don’t succeed the first time try and try again.”

Despite Jonas saying she was going on a well-deserved holiday and would consider all options that are open for her on her return, the demand for a rematch with Terri Harper, who has followed Jonas up the weights and is now the WBA champion, began even before she had left the ring after her win over Dicaire. Jonas has since told me her wish list of opponents for 2023, Harper wasn’t on that list. She talked about going a different route, including returning to weight divisions that are more natural to her. Although a fight with Claressa Shields can’t be ignored. And it won’t be. Both fighters are more than entertaining that option. But for Gallagher, he wants the immediate focus to be on Jonas enjoying and appreciating her moment:

“There has been plenty of talk since Natasha won the belts. Talk of lots of different opponents. But Natasha never really got a chance to celebrate winning the WBC title and becoming a two-time world champion, and now she is a three-time world champion. I just want her to enjoy being a world champion and number one in her division. We’ll sit down and speak with Ben and Sky and work out what is the best next move for her. There are talks ongoing with various parties and there are lots of different options we could take.”

Gallagher was adamant the Harper rematch wouldn’t be one of those options. At the post-fight press conference after the fight with Dicaire, he made that point as clearly as he possibly could. Time hasn’t changed his mind, in truth, it has only hardened it. But the interest in the rematch of the classic first encounter from 2020, has only increased. But reports of a high-end, six-figure initial offer and then an alleged close to 500k improved offer were way off the mark and grossly misleading and have probably only made Team Jonas more resolute in going in another direction. Memories of the past would have risen even more to the surface. And Gallagher told me there is absolutely no chance the Harper rematch will ever happen:

“The Terri Harper fight won’t happen. It’s been like a comedy of errors over the last few weeks. There was a video done saying there was a high-end six-figure offer put to Natasha and then they said they would increase it and now it’s just below 500k. A high-end figure you are talking 800-900k, so that first statement is a lie. That’s what we are having to deal with. The Terri Harper fight won’t happen and it never will happen. There was an opportunity to make that fight a few years ago and they now only have themselves to blame.”

(For clarification, the above comments from Joe Gallagher are in relation to widespread Social Media reports of certain offers made to Natasha Jonas to fight Terri Harper, and not an admission of anything in regards to either offer. FightPost understands the reported 500k second offer is significantly lower than what has been publicised elsewhere.)

Even if Matchroom do make a genuine high-end six-figure offer, there seems little chance Jonas and Harper will ever share a ring together again. Money isn’t the motivating factor in this instance. There were two interviews I did with Jonas last year that never saw the light of day. One was in August, the other in October. Both interviews highlighted the ongoing issues, and Jonas described her mood as ‘raging’ in the second interview after a scheduled fight on the Liam Smith Anthony Fowler card fell away 48 hours before it was scheduled to happen. Jonas was thrown to the wolves in various interviews, as various outlets didn’t bother to check or care, that there might be another side to the story. Trust me, there most certainly is. Yes, Jonas got the Harper and Taylor fights, but you can’t just gloss over what happened on either side of those fights just because it is convenient for one side to do so. Gallagher knows better than anyone how deep-routed the problems are:

“Natasha and her family have strong principles and morals, it’s about more than just money. It’s about numerous things. It’s about the way Natasha was messed about with the rematch two years ago and the way she was treated at the press conference last year in Liverpool and everything else. It is just a collection of things. It is for Natasha to tell the full story one day and I am sure she will tell it and it will all come out then.”

The full story will come out one day, and there is a reason it hasn’t yet. For now, judgement should be reserved.

There is an obvious clamour to see Jonas and Harper fight again, especially, when there is the undisputed status on the line at super-welterweight and all the animosity and history that surrounds the fight. But equally, and probably more importantly, you have to understand the strength of feeling between Team Jonas and certain parties in making the Harper fight again. Possible fights with the likes of Katie Taylor, Jessica McCaskill and even Chantelle Cameron, despite the Matchroom links, don’t carry the exact same problems. Read into that what you will. There are problems to resolve with any of those fights, but they are at least a little less complicated. But Gallagher, with the old shop steward mentality that still burns from his past and his genuine care and the desire to do what’s best for his fighter, will ignore all the outside noise surrounding the possible fight with Harper and will simply do what’s best for Jonas:

“They are all saying what we should do and shouldn’t do. I think Eddie Hearn said the other day, as her manager it should be my job to get Natasha the most money. But the most money for Natasha Jonas isn’t a fight with Terri Harper. We are doing the right thing for Natasha. That isn’t the right fight for Natasha or the right money. We are in the Natasha Jonas business. We just have to think about what’s best for Natasha. She has three belts and is the Ring Magazine champion, and she might wake up one morning and say you know what I don’t want to fight again I have accomplished everything I want to do. It is all down to Natasha what she wants to do.”

And that is the crucial point here. Everybody is trying to tell Jonas what she should do, but nobody cares what she wants to do. In many ways, they should.

Jonas will go away on holiday with her daughter, and on her return, will hopefully, have the offers on the table that will determine her immediate fighting future. And unless there is a seismic change, that future will not include Terri Harper. Gallagher told me there were about eight possible routes to take. Some names are of no surprise, others most certainly are. All have moving parts, and those moving parts will at least play some part in where Jonas goes next.

Many will question and doubt the choices that Jonas will make. But she has gone from being the ‘away’ fighter, feeling undervalued and more, to being a unified world champion and earning money she could only have dreamed of just over a year ago. For reference, what Jonas earned against Namus for a vacant title is substantially more than what she earned against Taylor for the undisputed world lightweight titles. Those that question should remember her decisions of late have been proven right. And incredibly lucrative. Jonas has now earned the right to decide her next move. And she will. Nobody else.

Photo Credit: Lawrence Lustig/Boxxer