Rhiannon Dixon: “I’ve tasted being a world champion, and now it’s been taken away from me. I am more motivated than ever to get that back. I want the rematch with Terri.”

Rhiannon Dixon: “I’ve tasted being a world champion, and now it’s been taken away from me. I am more motivated than ever to get that back. I want the rematch with Terri.”

“I’ve tried not to think about the fight. There is nothing I can do about it now.” The opening words of a reflective Rhiannon Dixon.

It was just over a week removed since Dixon suffered her first professional defeat. Her first defeat of any kind inside a boxing ring. Unbeaten in seven white-collar fights and ten fights in the paid ranks. Dixon has now seen the other side of the sport. A painful side that leaves the mind unsettled. And no easy answers.

“Obviously, people who go through the amateurs have experienced losing before,” Dixon told me over Zoom. “But I have never experienced it before because I only had those seven white-collar fights. So this was my first defeat and it was on the biggest stage in the biggest fight of my life. It’s just shit.”

Dixon lost her WBO world lightweight title to Terri Harper in Sheffield on September 28th. A points decision took away her WBO bauble and her unblemished resume. Two days later, Dixon was on a plane heading to a pre-booked holiday. A distraction to try and stop her mind wandering and drifting back to a fight that didn’t go her way.

It wasn’t quite the holiday that was expected. A week in the sun in full celebration mode was the plan. There were still stories of water parks, camel rides and more. But the words didn’t quite have the same ring of joy about them. Dixon was understandably a little subdued in comparison to her normal self.

“Because we went away, I haven’t been to the gym and talked the fight through with everyone. I have just been distracting myself at the moment.” Dixon says of her current mindset.

“In the 10th round, when Anthony (Crolla) said I needed to knock her out,” Dixon told FightPost of when reality hit home that her world title reign was in serious jeopardy. But in truth, she knew long before that.

“I could feel it while I was in there. I can remember thinking I needed to change it up a bit.” The Warrington fighter added when I delved a little deeper into her in-fight thoughts.

There was one moment in the fight where the trajectory of the fight suddenly changed. Behind on points, Dixon suddenly found some momentum. A big right hand landed with real menace and Harper looked in a world of trouble.

“I thought in the 6th round that she was very badly hurt,” Dixon relayed to me. “She grabbed onto me for dear life. But Terri has got very strong legs, and when she is hurt, they seem to keep her up. When that punch landed, I thought I had got it. I just wished I had stepped back instead of just loading up. I know I can hurt people. I just need to learn how to finish them off. I need to watch the fight back. It’s different watching it from being in there.”

Harper and her team made her greater experience a big part of the pre-fight narrative. And that was how the fight played out. “They knew not to rush because that is when she is vulnerable. So she was just doing enough.” An acknowledgement from the former champion that perhaps Harper just knew a lot too much for her on the night.

Dixon is still trying to process her thoughts. Searching for what went wrong on a night where she was heavily favoured to win.

“I just think I went in with the wrong mentality,” Dixon admitted. “I didn’t think it would be easy. I just thought it would be more of a fight than a boxing match. I just didn’t do anything that I do well. The things I have done well in the past, I didn’t do any of that because I was too busy focussing on other stuff. I steered away from what makes me good. You should just do what you do well.”

Despite still being in somewhat of a reflective mode, Dixon still has one eye on what’s next. An extra little bit of motivation and a desire to run it back with Terri Harper.

“I’ve tasted being a world champion, and now it’s been taken away from me. I am more motivated than ever to get that back. I want the rematch with Terri.” 

In time, Dixon will hope her first professional defeat will turn out to be a blessing in disguise. At 29, her best years are still ahead of her. Dixon would have learned more in one fight than all her previous fights combined. Harper deserves credit for her performance. But you sense she might also have done her opponent one almighty favour. Dixon is still a work in progress. Harper showed her that. But that experience will serve Rhiannon Dixon extremely well going forward. With lessons learned, Rhiannon Dixon will become a better fighter because of her defeat to Terri Harper.

Photo Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing