There are few prospects who suffer a knockout defeat and come back looking as impressive as Matty Harris did earlier this month against Franklin Ignatius.

A heavyweight from Coventry, England, Harris suffered an upset stoppage loss back in 2023 at the hands of Kostiantyn Dovbyshchenko, but he did not let that break him. He has since recorded five wins – three inside the distance – with the most impressive yet coming against Ignatius on April 4, when he knocked his man out inside two rounds.

“I have always been very resilient. I've always had to be – we've had a complicated life,” Harris told BoxingScene. “So it's one of those things that was always installed into us, I suppose. Quitting was never an option. I'd always made a promise to myself that I was going to give it everything, and I might've deviated from that before the fight, but the promise still stood. So for me, it was difficult. But as long as you're strong, as I said, it's all up here. Boxing is 95 per cent mental.”

The context behind Harris’ bounceback goes far deeper than might be imagined. Boxing, after all, is just a sport. There are other things in life that mean far more. Harris knows this all too well. When he was just 17 years old, his mother, Jenni, was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer.

“My mom's a tough lady, she's very resilient, and she said to us back then that she was going to fight it and she was going to beat it for us,” Harris said. “And she did. So if my mom could come back from anything, from something like that, coming back from a stoppage defeat, I mean, I'll be fine. It's in the blood. My uncle was a boxer. My mom's always been tough. My grandma, my dad's tough. We're just a tough family, I suppose.”

That reliance showed in the contest against Ignatius. The fight took place on the undercard of Deontay Wilder-Derek Chisora live on DAZN PPV – a huge chance for Harris to demonstrate his progression over the past three years.

“We knew it was a tough matchup on paper, but that was it,” said Harris of the Ignatius bout. “I said exactly that: It's a tough matchup on paper. No disrespect, I just know what I had was a lot more than what he had. 

“So I love these kind of fights. Like the fight I had with Franklin Ignatius, where it's a bit more competitive. That's my kind of fight. They're the ones you can kind of get up for. It gets you out of bed in the morning, gets you in the gym, gets you working hard, gets you on them runs. So I imagine – and you can see the shape I turned up in – I dropped over 20 pounds since my last fight. I was fit, I was ready, I was sharp, and that's what you're going to see a lot more of moving forward.”

Harris has come on leaps and bounds since teaming up with trainer Peter Fury.

“Peter's been singing my praises – not really too much in the gym most of the time, I think he ran out of curse words for me this camp,” Harris joked. “But, yeah, it was nice to be able to go out there and kind of just get let off the leash, I suppose – go out there and put on a performance. And he said it to me beforehand: ‘A good performance here will change your life. So no pressure.’”

The performance has given Harris a lift, and he is now looking up at his domestic rivals making their way in the sport. Perhaps at the top of the list of opponents for Harris to face is 21-year-old heavyweight star Moses Itauma – someone Harris has shared the ring with before, in sparring, and did rather well.

“It was a few years ago now, but yeah, that's definitely somebody I'd look to fight in the future,” Harris said of the Itauma spars. “Any of them names out there – any of them – I would look forward to taking on any of them. Obviously, Moses is the guy that they will blow and smoke up at the minute, but it's well-deserved. Listen, I'm absolutely not a hater. He's doing well and all credit to him. There's more than enough in this game for everyone to eat. So I'm happy seeing him do what he's doing, man. Um, I say happy. … I'm OK with it. It's nice to see the young guys. These will all be fights for me in the future. These will all be fights that I'm going to be eyeing up. As I say, him, any of the younger guys, any of the guys that are around the minute.

“I don't think that I would ever get a fight with Johnny Fisher, because I think they know how that fight would go on. But as I say, even seeing him go on to do his thing, I'm happy to see him doing well. He's actually a really nice guy – him, his dad, the family, they're all really nice people. So seeing him go on to do whatever he's doing, I'm more than happy. Any of the people around at the minute, the only thing that I have my eyes on are titles. I don't care what names are attached to it.”

The British heavyweight title was recently contested between Jeamie Tshikeva and Richard Riakporhe on April 18. Riakporhe walked out the winner via fifth-round stoppage at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. So could Harris be in line for a shot?

“I think, genuinely, I think I'm about at least another fight away from that, if I was being honest,” he said. “But at some point this year, that's where I'm going to be heading. I want to be fighting for that this year and I'm going to win it. So whoever's got it, it is of no consequence to me.”

Tom Ivers is a lifelong fight fan and former amateur boxer who has a master’s degree in sports journalism. Tom joined BoxingScene in 2024 and is now a key part of the UK and social media teams.