The Case For Nicola Hopewell

The Case For Nicola Hopewell

Nicola Hopewell should have been fighting this Saturday night. Now she isn’t. Just 48 hours from the first bell, her fight has fallen by the wayside.

It all started on Wednesday morning. A social media post from the Worksop based super-flyweight prospect asking if any of her friends could pick up her scheduled opponent up from the airport was the start of the drama. The day ended when news filtered through that her opponent had medical issues and would not be approved by the British Boxing Board of Control. The late call on that issue is another mystery. Why so late in the day to make that call?

Thursday still offered some hope. The search for a substitute opponent began. But it ended without reward. That slightest hint of hope was quickly extinguished. It wasn’t a surprise, but to the fighter, it was heartbreaking.

“I am frustrated, annoyed, and heartbroken that I can’t fight on Saturday, but there’s nothing I can do.”

Hopewell has been kicking her heels in frustration since February. A mature performance saw the unbeaten Hopewell extending her resume to 3-0 in Rotherham courtesy of a one-sided points victory over
Ivanka Ivanova. We saw improvements. And potential.

But the regular activity she craves hasn’t materialised. A big title fight was offered, and Hopewell wanted it. They waited. And waited. But it didn’t get over the line. When that fight was eventually dead in the water, Hopewell took the fight on Saturday at three weeks’ notice just to stay busy. And now that has been taken away from her.

Hopewell will now have a well-deserved holiday and hopes her extended ring hiatus will end in September. It needs to.

The obsession with flying in imports to test the British prospects is always a thing of amusement to this old cynic. More so when there are better options a little closer to home.

The same old band of willing travellers get regurgitated. Many of them offer very little in the way of development. Too many of them are set in their ways. They come to protect the next pay day. For many, too many, it is about the art of survival. That is the height of their ambition. They might serve a purpose, but I have lost sight of what that purpose actually is. There comes a point when you have to seek out fighters with a little more ambition. Hopewell is near or at that point.

Hopewell wants to target titles and advance to ten-rounders. She will hope that day soon arrives.

There is a plethora of domestic opposition that could, and maybe, should be explored. It might mean Hopewell has to go in as the ‘away’ fighter, but she might not have a choice. Her good friend Ebanie Bridges did that a few years ago, when she fought the ‘house’ fighter Shannon Courtenay on a few weeks’ notice. Bridges lost, but made her point. Hopewell might have to do the same.

Fellow domestic prospects Maisey-Rose Courtney, Chloe Watson, Shannon Ryan, Emma Dolan, and Lauren Parker all sit around her weight division. Hopewell wouldn’t look out of place in any of those fights. Fights that Hopewell has nothing to lose and everything to gain. Fights that could and should be explored sooner rather than later. Hopewell holds an amateur win over Courtney. A return in the professional ranks has a little bit of a back story. Courtney disputes that win. Hopewell wants to repeat it. For both fighters, it gives the fight a little bit of an edge. And one that would sell.

Lauren Parker holds the IBO Inter-Continental super-flyweight bauble and will soon challenge for European honours. Another possible domestic dust-up for Hopewell.

Emma Dolan, the Commonwealth super-flyweight champion, is a fight that is relatively easy to make. Why it hasn’t, is a strange one. Both fighters want it. Find the right venue, it is a main event fight.

I’ve said many times that a British title should be created in the super-flyweight division. You have flyweights who can move up and bantamweights who can come down. It would give the domestic talent a reason to fight each order. But a British title or not, Hopewell should be manoeuvred into those types of fights. She is far too talented a fighter to be lost in the wilderness.

Photo Credit: GBM Sports