Harli Whitwell: “I want it more now than I ever did before.”

Harli Whitwell: “I want it more now than I ever did before.”

The professional career of Harli Whitwell was rolling along quite nicely. A few niggling injuries aside, not unusual for any fighter, the unbeaten super-featherweight prospect had gone 5-0 and earned a multitude of plaudits along the way. A victory over Karina Szmalenberg last April seemed to indicate her fighting apprenticeship was nearing its natural conclusion. Whitwell was moving swiftly into the title picture.

But that victory over Szmalenberg was the last time Whitwell graced a boxing ring. A serious knee injury that required surgery and extensive rehabilitation has put that highly-promising career on hold. But the 25-year-old is finally on the way back. A beyond slow process full of dark times, self-doubt, but no little resilience and determination. Finally, Whitwell can see light at the end of an extremely long tunnel.

“Things are better than they have been over the last few months with training,” Whitwell told me over Zoom. “I am starting to get a bit of momentum back now. I am starting to feel more normal now, rather than being in the trenches with my recovery.”

A career that was halted just when it was moving into its next phase left a mark on Whitwell. The slow and brutal recovery period was a constant struggle for the St. Ives fighter.

“To be honest, I really struggled when I got back from surgery,” Whitwell told me. “I couldn’t bend my leg or put any weight on it for about five weeks. It wasn’t even the pain side of things; once I got home, the pain kind of subsided. It was just not being able to do anything and not being able to walk or anything like that. I did find that really difficult. The first three months were really tough. Once I could get walking again, it was fine because I knew I could go to the gym and do little bits and bobs.”

The frustration of being kept on the sidelines for so long is obvious. “I have been out of the ring since last April, so time is now of the essence. I feel like when I had my little injury with my knee, I thought it was fine, I’m still young. But I turn 26 next year, and I just want to get moving again. It’s been a bit of a journey, but I am at the end of it now.

“I have had little niggles with certain injuries. It was my shoulder to begin with, but I have had a lot of injuries that kept cropping up. Originally, I thought this was my MCL, but I didn’t have an MRI; I just carried on with the strength work. But when I was sparring, that was when my ACL completely tore. I was constantly in and out of fights. I was constantly pushing myself to my absolute limit, and I think my body was so tired. I think it happened for a reason. I kept pushing myself to the absolute max. Hopefully, now it’s all sorted, and it won’t be a problem again.

“I have been out for quite a while, and I now need to get my strength back up because my knee is not 100% just yet. So there is still some work to be done. I’ll probably get another scan on it to see where we are at, and then I can think about sparring. I don’t want to push it until I know it’s 100% to go. I don’t want to take any risks. It’s obviously been frustrating. I had been quite active since I turned professional, even with those injuries. I said to myself only the other day that I will probably not get this time off again until I retire. But it has been frustrating seeing more people turning over and fighting for titles that I should have been fighting for. I am just sitting on the sidelines at the moment, getting ready to go. I have been thinking about where I would have been now if the injury hadn’t happened. But that’s the sport at the end of the day. Everyone goes into a fight with some sort of injury. Hopefully, this is the worst injury I will ever have to face in my career. I am just glad it’s kind of done now, and I can just look upwards from here.”

As her recovery reaches the final mile, Whitwell understands that lessons need to be learned. “I do need to listen to my body more,” Whitwell admitted. “It got to a point where I was sparring, and I was about five weeks away from my fight, and my knee wasn’t quite there yet. We had booked in a fight and it was the pressure because we had already been selling tickets. My opponent was booked in, and I didn’t want to let anyone down. But deep down, I knew my knee didn’t feel ready. The lesson I can take from that is that I know better than anyone else if I am ready or not, or the pain that I am feeling. I just need to be more vocal and listen to my body a bit more. I am the boss of myself, and no fight goes ahead unless I say so.”

Before the extended hiatus, Harli Whitwell gathered many plaudits. Hailed by many as a future world champion, Whitwell was considered a future star of her sport. For a fighter who can be somewhat overcritical of her performances, that type of high praise is very much welcomed. “If anything, it does me the world of good hearing those things,” Whitwell says. “I can be a negative thinker. I do put myself down at times. I do need to believe in myself more.”

“I want it more now than I ever did before,” Whitwell added. A fighter more determined than ever to realise all that potential. “I have a lot of work to do to get back to where I was.

“I will be back in the new year. There is no rush because rushing got me in this position in the first place. The first one won’t be a title fight, but we’ll see where I am after that and what other fights are on the cards. Hopefully, nobody has forgotten about me. If they have, I will have to remind them.”

It might not have seemed like it in those desperately long, dark months of surgery and the subsequent slow recovery process. But it can also be a blessing in disguise, at least in some ways. The lessons learned will greatly benefit Whitwell going forward. Time has been lost, but while obviously frustrating, it isn’t career critical. That time can be recovered, with her peak years still to come.

Whitwell will return early in 2026, and after a likely low-key return, titles will then be the focus. The expected. By the end of next year, Whitwell will hope the darkness has been replaced by the bright lights. The story might have been interrupted. But the end goal remains the same.