Rhiannon Dixon: From White Collar to World Champion?

Rhiannon Dixon: From White Collar to World Champion?

Rhiannon Dixon has now got some severe competition from the new teenage darts sensation Luke Littler for the Warrington Sports Personality of the Year for 2024.

Littler has been known on the darts scene for quite some time. To the casual darts fan and the wider public, Littler came from absolutely nowhere to coming agonisingly close to winning the PDC World Professional Darts Championship just over a month ago. Only a missed double in a crucial set probably cost him a dream debut victory. But the supreme talent of Littler has been known to the true darts aficionado for a number of years. His story is very similar to that of Rhiannon Dixon. But the ending, at least in the short term, could be very different for a fighter who will fight for the world lightweight title in April.

Dixon is favoured to beat Karen Elizabeth Carabajal in Manchester when they meet for the vacant WBO world lightweight title. Like Littler in darts, there will be many who think she has suddenly risen to the forefront of the boxing world. But Dixon has quietly been learning her craft away from the bright lights opening Matchroom shows, and only recently has she found her way onto the main card.

Littler was consumed by his sport from an early age. His success in it was hardly a surprise. He has been groomed for that success almost from the very day he first picked up a dart in those incredibly early formative learning years. Littler was playing darts, and good darts at that, long before his age, had reached double figures. When Dixon started boxing, she was already in her twenties. Her early dreams were focused on becoming a pharmacist. But as her boxing career advanced, Dixon made a choice and left the medical world behind.

Littler came up the darting ranks the old-fashioned way. The tried and tested way of playing in the PDC youth system before eventually being old enough to compete on the main circuit. Make no mistake, only age has held Luke Littler back this long.

Dixon started her fighting life on the unlicensed White Collar scene and turned professional in 2019 with zero amateur experience. And without any realistic expectations of grandeur. Any talk of winning world titles would have been viewed as incredibly optimistic five years ago.

In the depths of despair of those desperate Covid times, Dixon found the former world champion Anthony Crolla. The raw talents of Dixon were then refined under the tutelage of Crolla. Matchroom and Eddie Hearn signed her up not long after. The boxing apprenticeship was served well. 2023 brought the Commonwealth and European lightweight titles. 2024 could very easily bring a world title. While the journey of both to the pinnacle of their sport might be completely different, the ending you sense will eventually be the same for Littler and Dixon.

The teenage prodigy will likely become a world champion in the not-too-distant future. Dixon could do so within the next few months.

Dixon made her Matchroom debut in the very same Manchester arena where she hopes that her unlikely rise to the upper echelons of her sport will have its ultimate crowning moment.

Carabajal has only been beaten by Katie Taylor. But the early odds indicate that Dixon will be the second fighter to beat her. If the unbeaten Warrington lightweight gets past Carabajal, you sense that will only be the beginning. Dixon has gone under the radar by many. This year will likely change that. Littler has hit the mainstream headlines since that truly remarkable run at the home of flying tungsten. Dixon might be about to follow.

There is more than a touch of star potential about Rhiannon Dixon. An infectious personality and her own patented unique blend of humour that hasn’t yet been seen by the masses. Promoted in the right manner, Hearn could have something very special on his hands. A once unheralded signing could quite easily turn into one of the stars of his sizable and talented stable.

A win over Carabajal will bring that vacant WBC bauble. But it could bring so much more. A British rival who hopefully resolves her own ongoing seemingly unnecessarily complicated world title aspirations could fight Dixon and potentially headline somewhere down the boxing road. There’s a current vacancy for the Queen of the lightweight division. Rhiannon Dixon and Caroline Dubois look set to decide who is the rightful successor to Katie Taylor. An undoubtedly hard act to follow. But her old division appears to be in safe hands.

But there are a plethora of other high-profile international opponents lying in wait for Dixon. Stars of the female code who could bring plenty of shine to the resume of the former pharmacist. The road ahead could be incredibly rewarding for the former White Collar fighter. Both financially and also in her inside-the-ring achievements. A golden future in many ways. If the odds are right for her moment of truth in April, Littler could have a local rival that even he can’t outscore. Double trouble indeed.

Photo Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing