Rhiannon Dixon: “A Commonwealth title is something I am looking forward to and hopefully, that is on the horizon very soon.”

Rhiannon Dixon: “A Commonwealth title is something I am looking forward to and hopefully, that is on the horizon very soon.”

It is the time of the year when all the media outlets give out their end-of-year awards. Most are in truth meaningless and biased, but there are those that do carry real meaning. Scattered amongst the endless Fight and Fighter of the Year honours is the far less frequent Prospect of the Year lists that float around Social Media as the current year in question winds down. Some of the names that frequent such lists are there on merit, and some clearly aren’t. But one name that always seems to be absent is Rhiannon Dixon.

Dixon, an unbeaten Matchroom lightweight prospect, always seems like a fighter who goes under the radar somewhat. Now four fights into her Matchroom career, Dixon was the first fight on the card for her most recent outing in Leeds. In some ways, that serves her well. The former White-Collar fighter is still learning her craft and being so far down on the card affords her the opportunity, the luxury even, to learn her craft away from the scrutiny of the masses. But equally, there is still that feeling Dixon should be boxing far higher up the card already, and with the personality she carries, she is a fighter who deserves a bigger push and given far more spotlight. The following twelve months will surely correct both of those particular indiscretions. There is a sense that Rhiannon Dixon is Matchroom’s best-kept secret.

Dixon recently extended that faultless start to her professional career to seven wins on the bounce and served up her most impressive victory to date in outpointing the tough and ready Kristine Shergold in her first experience of eight rounds. The Warrington lightweight is her own worst critic at times, but even she was pleased with her night’s work she told me over Zoom:

“Obviously, there are still things I can improve on, but I thought it was alright. Anthony (Crolla) said between one of the rounds how do you feel, and I replied I felt like Lomachenko, and he just started laughing.”

While the Lomachenko reference is probably stretching things a little, she was joking of course, hopefully anyway, and sometimes you never quite know with Dixon, it was still a performance to be proud of. A win in Nottingham back in September against the experienced Edina Kiss should have been celebrated as a sign of much progress but the immediate aftermath was a fighter being overly critical of her performance. But the realisation has now come for a change in perspective:

“I just thought I am going to start enjoying it because I will never get this time back again. If I spend time worrying about what other people think, all these fun times are going to pass me by. I put so much into that camp and I thought I am just going to go out and enjoy the fight.”

Fighting in her first eight-rounder was of little discomfort for the Matchroom prospect. Dixon breezed through the opening six rounds and it was only in the last round did she show any signs of fatigue, which was understandable at the rapid pace the fight was fought at. It was another fight where Dixon would have learned plenty, and even just a few days removed from the fight, Dixon was looking to improve further for the next one:

“I thought I paced it really well. Even at the end when she was coming forward more she wasn’t really catching me. I was still making her miss and hurting her. I am going to look at changing things for the next training camp to ensure that if someone wants to put pressure on me in the last two rounds I will be more than capable of dealing with it.”

Dixon showed her progress against Shergold. Boxing well behind her jab, effective countering to head and body and improved use of her footwork and angles, add to that her patience and avoiding the temptation to get involved too much. It was her most complete performance to date. There is the performance that the untrained eye or someone on the outside sees, and the one the fighter sees. And that has been part of the frustration for Dixon. As good as Dixon has looked in her recent fights, she knows she is capable of better and that forms part of her low self-critique of her own performances. But the win over Shergold even impressed the hard-to-please Dixon:

“This is the sort of thing I have been doing in training so I have known I can box like that. When I have spoken to you before that’s why I have been really disappointed with my performance because I know what I have been doing in the gym and what I am capable of. But I felt I did everything right this time, everything, even the weight cut, just went perfectly.”

With her limited experience in boxing, Dixon can quite justifiably be pleased with where she currently sits in the sport. A handful of fights, all wins, on the White-Collar scene has been enhanced by her seven fights as a professional. The improvements have been gradual, but since the hook-up with the former world champion Anthony Crolla at the height of Lockdown, we have seen a fighter who has grown beyond what her experience should have allowed. The fighter herself is pleased with her progress and the opportunities that she is getting:

“From someone who had no amateur experience and nobody knew who I was, I feel like I am getting opportunities that other people haven’t been able to get. I am really grateful for those opportunities, I came from White-Collar boxing I shouldn’t be where I am. I am happy with the fights I have taken and the progression. I’m not in a massive rush to fight for world titles, I know I have time and still got things to learn. I know I am still learning from every fight. But a Commonwealth title is something I am looking forward to and hopefully, that is on the horizon very soon.”

The following twelve months will be when the career of Rhiannon Dixon starts to enter the next phase. There will be tougher assignments, a step up to ten rounds and almost certainly a fight for her first professional title. Her career as an NHS Pharmacist has been put on temporary hold to give her boxing career the best possible chance of success. This could be pivotal as to how far she goes. And it could be far. It would be a shame if Dixon has moved to 10-0, or better, in the next year or so and she is still fighting in front of the few die-hards who brave the cold empty arenas a few hours before the main card gets underway. Dixon is a talent and should be gradually pushed up the card and given a greater profile and let her naturally engaging and fun personality shine under the bright lights of the Matchroom banner. Hopefully, in twelve months’ time, Rhiannon Dixon isn’t still Matchroom’s best-kept secret.