LONDON – Caroline Dubois is preparing to punish Bo Mi Re Shin for the frustration she feels not only at Shin’s bravado, but what she sees as Terri Harper’s refusal to fight her.

On the eve of Dubois making the second defence of her WBC lightweight title, against her South Korean challenger in London at the Royal Albert Hall, it was confirmed that Harper, her fellow Briton and the WBO champion, will next defend her title in April against Germany’s Natalie Zimmermann.

Dubois, 24, had made little secret of her desire to instead fight Harper on Friday. When Shin was instead installed as her opponent, she hoped to win and to secure a unification fight with Harper next.

On the undercard of another unification title contest, between two British fighters in the welterweights Natasha Jonas and Lauren Price, she is increasingly fighting with a point to prove.

She expects the 30-year-old Shin to attempt to bully her, and has targeted turning her aggression against her, before then pursuing Harper later in 2025.

“I was very disappointed,” she told BoxingScene. “I think Terri’s got an agenda – she knows that that belt that she has isn’t going to be hers for very long, so while she’s got it she’s going to hold on to it as long as she possibly can. 

“She’s been world champion before, and she’s been beaten before, so I think for her it’s just trying to enjoy what she’s at and where she’s at for as long as possible. Holding on to what she’s got for as long as possible – dragging it out, and trying to hold it for as long as she can.

“That’s still the game plan [to fight her]. It just goes to show – you turn down a fight at the Royal Albert Hall against Caroline Dubois for what, for a female fighter, is very good money, to fight Natalie Zimmermann – who is she? I’ve watched a few of her fights – I’m not trying to be disrespectful. It just goes to show she’s not got the mentality that a world champion should have.

“I was disappointed that Terri Harper turned down the fight – that was the fight that I wanted. But once she turned it down we knew we were going to be going on the search looking for opponents, and [Shin] was the one that accepted the fight. I didn’t really care – it was just on to the next one and focusing on a game plan to get through and continue with what I want, which is to be undisputed [champion] by the end of this year.

“I’ve watched a few of her fights, and I think I know what her strengths and weaknesses are, but I don’t really obsess over my opponents. I just focus on myself – being the best me – and going from there. I know a little bit. I’ve seen her at work.

“Watching footage is always good to get a gauge of the opponent. I’ve seen her fight against Delfine Persoon [in 2023], and a recent one, three or four months ago [against South Africa’s] Ntomboqala Tolashe, but the competition that she’s been in with hasn’t been the best. The best opponent she has is Delfine Persoon, and obviously she lost that one. 

“I don’t really take too much from it because she’s not really fighting high-level opponents. It’s all good when you’re beating up a journeywoman, but it’s about what it’s like when you’re stepping in with a top-level fighter that matters. Unfortunately, she hasn’t got that, so I don’t read too much into what I see. I just focus on what I’m going to do when we step into the ring.”

Dubois was elevated from the status of interim champion before her fight in January with Canada’s Jessica Camara, when she was on course for victory until a cut suffered by Camara meant their fight being ruled a technical draw.

Her first-round knockdown of Camara was the latest demonstration of the considerable potential widely expected to one day establish her as the world’s finest female fighter, but for all of the disdain with which she discusses Shin and Harper, she insists that there is no lingering frustration that her first title defence ended in the manner in which it did.

“If I go out there and have a great performance, that’s all that matters,” she said. “If I go out there and win and it’s the worst performance I’ve ever had, I’d be devastated. That would upset me and [I’d be] thinking about it a long time. It’s always about the performance – the result, it’s not up to me. All I can do is go out there and perform, and I feel like I did. 

“I know there’s going to be tough fights. I genuinely, hand on my heart, know it’s going to get harder. There’s going to be fights where I have to bite down on my gumshield and really have to go through the fire to get the victory, so while things are easy and smooth I’m just going to enjoy it while it is, and when those days come, and I have to be tough, I’m going to be ready for that.

“[Shin’s] aggressive. She thinks she’s tough. The way she’s got a macho mentality of, ‘I’m just gonna come in, put my head down, and swing for the roof’. She thinks she’s the toughest girl in the world. Even though it is a negative, it can also be a strength – she’s gonna go out there and throw, and that’s always tough. It’s about preparing for that.

“Everything else [is a weakness]. I’ll expose that on the night.

“I think she’ll be cautious for the first round, but unless I give her something to worry about, I’m sure she’ll think, ‘I’m just going to go here’. I don’t think she’ll think she can walk through me like she can other opponents. I’m going to be hitting her, and I hit hard, so I don’t think she’ll be able to walk through me like that. But we’ll see.”