Ebanie Bridges & Nicola Hopewell: Two Friends & Two Fighters Looking to Bounce Back in 2024

Ebanie Bridges & Nicola Hopewell: Two Friends & Two Fighters Looking to Bounce Back in 2024

Not so long ago, Ebanie Bridges was the IBF bantamweight champion of the world, and her good friend Nicola Hopewell was unbeaten and looking forward to challenging Emma Dolan for her Commonwealth super-flyweight title. But for both, everything changed.

Bridges lost her IBF bauble to the Japanese fighter Miyo Yoshida in a stunning upset earlier this month in San Francisco. While Hopewell came up short in her fight with Dolan a few months earlier.

The online critics will view those defeats as the end of the line. Two fighters who were either exposed or that they have now found their level. But as the old Mark Twain line might have said, albeit with a little bit of a twist, reports of their demise have almost certainly been exaggerated.

Bridges almost certainly could have made a plethora of excuses for her unexpected setback against Yoshida. The Bridges we have previously seen, certainly the one we have seen of late, wasn’t there in San Francisco. But to her credit, she made none. Yoshida deserved her moment. Bridges didn’t want to take it away from her. And she didn’t. Despite that painful defeat, the Australian said she was genuinely happy for Yoshida. Trust me, those thoughts were genuine.

But the former IBF bantamweight champion is already planning her return. If anyone thought the final chapter of her boxing career had been written, they would have been mistaken. If you know her life story to date, you would be extremely foolish to write her off. As she has said herself, “I ain’t done yet.”

Hopewell was outpointed by Dolan in Sheffield in October. But despite that sobering loss, the Worksop fighter showed enough to suggest that her future could still be laced with titles.

In many ways, there will be lessons learned, not least to fight at a weight that suits her frame the best. On fight night, there was a 3kg weight difference. Hopewell now knows her fighting future is now at flyweight.

Hopewell has licked her wounds, made adjustments, and is currently waiting for the phone to ring with a firm date for her return. That might be her biggest obstacle to overcome. But the ‘comeback’ fight has to be the right opportunity and at the right weight. The team behind Hopewell need to make the right decisions going forward for her career. A crucial fact that is often overlooked. But equally, the fighter has to learn from her good friend and take charge of her own career. Too many times, careers are lost and dreams are left unfulfilled when fighters leave the important decisions to others. One career. One chance. Take control. Hopewell once told me that she doesn’t want any regrets when her career is over. The hope is that her career won’t be a case of what if.

Both Bridges and Hopewell will end 2023 on a defeat, but there is no reason why 2024 can’t be one of success. They will know the mistakes that have been made, and they will both learn from them, and they will return better fighters because of their last fights. A defeat isn’t always the end. Often, it is a new beginning. Bridges and Hopewell will enter the new year fired up for their new start. They both have a point to prove.

Bridges will target another world title run and redemption. Hopewell will chase her own goals. A new weight. A new start. The odds might be against them, but both will look to prove their doubters wrong. Again. Don’t rule it out.