Rhiannon Dixon: “I am starting to show little glimpses of what I can do.”

Rhiannon Dixon: “I am starting to show little glimpses of what I can do.”

After every fight, there was always the same never-ending narrative. Despite winning, Rhiannon Dixon would always be down on herself. To the naked untrained eye, the improvements were evident. A fighter slowly but surely stripping away that early rawness. The White Collar background and no amateur experience didn’t offer much hope that the Warrington fighter would get anywhere near to the level that she is right now after just nine fights as a professional.

But even in her debut in 2019, there were glimpses of what was to come. Dixon has got better. In truth, much better. But it never seemed to be enough to satisfy her. The critique from within was often a little too harsh, but she knew what she was capable of. Her former training partner the two-weight world champion Natasha Jonas once told me, “The only difference between me and Rhiannon is her confidence.”

The plaudits have always been there, the potential even more so. And now Dixon herself is starting to believe. This was a different post-fight interview from those now assigned to history. The victory on Saturday night over the former world title challenger Katharina Thanderz was still fresh in her mind as we connected over Zoom. It wasn’t just the victory itself that impressed so many, it was the manner of it. Dixon won every round of a fight that was billed as her toughest test to date, which it was, but her performance defied that pre-fight billing. Thanderz wasn’t the typical import, she came here to win and not just to make Dixon look good. She looked good because she was.

Nobody is more self-critical of her own performance than Dixon herself, but after her dominant win over her more experienced opponent, even she was happy.

“On the night, I always seem to underperform. I know I can do more. I probably sound like a broken record, but now I am starting to show little glimpses of what I can do,” Dixon told me.

It was a night where everything fell into place. Dixon won the Commonwealth lightweight title in her previous fight and the victory over the tough Norwegian added the vacant European bauble to her collection. It was an important victory for Dixon, and the importance of it isn’t lost on the new European champion.

“When I first started boxing, doing White Collar, Katharina was one of the big names. When the fight got ordered by the EBU I should be nowhere near fighting her, never mind beating her. That is why it is now so meaningful. I was confident of beating her, but I should be nowhere near her and that is why it means so much. All the way through the camp my team were telling me how well I would do in this fight. They always tell me you don’t realise how good you are.”

There was an impressive pre-fight confidence about Dixon as if she knew something that we didn’t. After a longer than normal training camp, and with a nutritionist now assigned to the team, Dixon was confident that this would be her coming out party. And it was.

“That’s why I said I think it would be my coming out party. People were going crazy at ringside and really getting into it.” A fighter still carrying around the euphoria from fight night.

Thanderz, with only one previous defeat on her record, and that was to Terri Harper in a world title challenge three years ago, came to London with real confidence and ambition. It was something that almost certainly fired up her opponent.

“They came with a lot of confidence that they were just going to walk through me, ” Dixon told me. “It kind of annoyed me, and I was thinking don’t think it will be an easy fight for you because it really won’t be.”

Dixon ticked another box by going ten rounds for the first time. But again, it was how she manoeuvred through those ten rounds that impressed. Dixon started fast and finished even faster. The likes of Hannah Robinson, another talented fighter about to enter the professional ranks, and the former world champion Hannah Rankin helped Dixon get into the best possible condition.

“We’ve been helping out Hannah because she is fighting a southpaw in November. We did three weeks of sparring with Hannah, so we were doing ten rounds then and then we dropped it down to get faster and then picked it back up again. I knew I was fit to go ten rounds but I just have to learn to pace myself better sometimes.”

There is a rare bond between fighter and trainer. Anthony Crolla entered the world of Rhiannon Dixon at the height of Covid, and Dixon is ever appreciative of how important that partnership is to her.

“We have our moments when we are ‘beefing’ on camera but when people say he is the nicest guy in boxing, I can honestly say that he is. When he got involved with me and James Moorcroft he was just living and enjoying life. Ant was retired from boxing and then he got a call and he said I’ll just help them out until they find another coach. But when we got a little taste of how he trained, we both thought wow, we really want to be with this guy. We were his sidekick for ages, he wouldn’t commit to us and then finally he agreed to be our coach. I am just so grateful. Ever since then, he kept going to Eddie (Hearn) showing him videos of me and he didn’t need to do any of that. Just from Ant doing that is the reason why I am where I am now. He always has our best interests at heart. We have been through so much together. We have just got this really good friendship and I know I can trust him 100% and I just can’t imagine myself anywhere else.”

Dixon is hoping to be out again in December, but with limited UK shows ahead before the year closes, it might mean that she will have to fight abroad for her next fight.

“I will just have to get a date. There are loads of fighters wanting to get on the UK shows so I am not sure where it will be. So it will be a case of where I fight next but I just want a fight that will take me another step forward.”

There is an obvious trust that Dixon has in her inner circle. A fighter confident that those around her are the right people to move her career forward at the right pace. Dixon talks about if her team think a certain fighter is the right fight for her then that is good enough for her.

The former Pharmacist is heading into the most important period of her career. In just a few short learning years, Dixon has gone from White Collar to a novice pro, then moved onwards to carrying the label of a decent but raw prospect to now being a fighter with genuine world title credentials. The worry for her future opponents is that Dixon will only get better. She is still some way from her peak but Dixon has the look of a real star. A bright new light that will help carry forward the next generation of female fighters.

Fighters are sometimes harshly judged, especially if they finish their career without a world title to their name. Rhiannon Dixon is already a success story. From where she started to where she is now, can’t not be applauded. Dixon is on the brink of fighting for world titles and looks set to be right in the mix if the world lightweight titles splinter at some point in 2024. From what we saw on Saturday night in London, there is every chance that Dixon will not only fight for a world title in the next 12 months, she is very likely to win one.

Photo Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing