Chloe Watson: “Shannon Ryan is a good opponent, and I think our styles will blend very well. I think people will enjoy what they see.”

Chloe Watson: “Shannon Ryan is a good opponent, and I think our styles will blend very well. I think people will enjoy what they see.”

It was a big platform for a big fight. Live on Sky Sports, defending her European flyweight title at the Royal Albert Hall on the second Boxxer all-female card. Sadly, for Chloe Watson, it didn’t go the way that she had planned. Jasmina Zapotoczna took away her unbeaten record and that European bauble in March on a wafer-thin split-decision.

Watson has been locked away in solitude since that painful night in March, in readiness for the next chapter of her career. A new inner circle, subtle changes that Watson hopes will make all the difference in the coming years.

“I’ve just enjoyed quietly working away,” Watson told me over Zoom. “I am confident that it will all show in my next fight.”

Heading into that fight with Zapotoczna, Watson was undefeated in eight fights and edging ever closer to a shot at the world flyweight title. A defeat that many will say stopped all her momentum in its tracks. But the Birkenhead-fighter sees it a little differently. “I wouldn’t say it has been a setback if I am being honest. It’s probably a redirection if you want to call it that. I am more focused on learning from it and obviously putting things right in my next fight.”

The fight with Zapotoczna split the judges and many at ringside. Watson would have liked the immediate rematch, but she has moved on, at least for now, with lessons learned. “I do believe the fight was close, and a lot of people had me winning,” Watson told me. “I think I started off well and finished well. I think a rematch would have been a good fight to make. It would have been a fight that made sense. But we have taken slightly different routes now. Either way, I am going to make it work well for me. I have definitely taken the lessons I needed from that last fight.

“I am now coming into the second half of my boxing career. I feel like I am just getting started with it. Hopefully, you will see me coming into my own. I have learned a lot, not just from my last fight, but ever since I turned professional. You are constantly learning on this journey. You are never the finished product. I have also learned just how much I want it. I always knew how much I wanted it, but when you sit down with yourself and you are hit with a hurdle like that, questions are asked of you. But I know how much I want it and how much I am willing to sacrifice now to get the best out of myself.”

Despite suffering her first reversal at the Royal Albert Hall in March, it was a night that Chloe Watson can still appreciate. “I was still part of a historic night, and despite the result, I got a lot of positive feedback from everyone who watched it, and there were a lot of people watching.”

The next fight is locked in. A move up to super-flyweight to fight Shannon Ryan at the York Hall in London on October 17th.

“It’s a fight that makes a lot of sense, and I have been working hard, and I want to show that on the night,” Watson says of her fight next month. “Shannon Ryan is a good opponent, and I think our styles will blend very well. I think people will enjoy what they see. It’s not a fight where I just want to win. It’s a fight I want to win in good fashion.”

There were no thoughts of taking a tune-up fight against a lesser opponent. Ryan has only lost to the talented and world-ranked Emma Dolan and represents a significant challenge to Watson. It’s a big fight for both Ryan and Watson. The former European champion firmly believes a victory over Ryan will greatly advance her career.

“It gets me back on track, and a win will open a lot of doors for me to fight for major titles,” Watson says of the importance of the fight. “It’s a ten-round fight, and we both know what’s at stake. We have similar records, and we both want to prove ourselves on this stage and show that we have what it takes to reach the top, and that’s what I am going to do. I want to win this fight in good style and then go from there.”

Despite taking the fight at super-flyweight, Watson isn’t ruling out a return to her old division. “I haven’t closed the door on flyweight. There are some exciting fights to be made in and around that weight. There are a lot of good opportunities. The division is quite tasty, and it is a good time to be fighting in and around that weight. The world scene is good as well, but it’s just taking one fight at a time. I am fully focused on the next fight because that is all that matters right now.”

Chloe Watson is rolling the dice once again next month. Another iconic boxing venue, and another fight of high risk. But the reward makes it a gamble worth taking. A victory over Ryan gives Watson back much of what was lost against Zapotoczna. Watson should be applauded for her refreshing attitude. She could have taken a far safer fight, a much easier route back into title contention, but as Watson says herself, “Where is the fun in that?”