Caroline Dubois has refused to rule out attempting to brawl to victory over Terri Harper on Sunday evening.
She and her fellow Briton contest the WBO and WBC lightweight titles at London’s Olympia in what represents Most Valuable Promotions’ first promotion since their agreeing a long-term broadcast agreement with Sky Sports.
Dubois, 25, has long been identified as one of the world’s most promising fighters, and in the 29-year-old Harper she is confronting both her toughest and highest-profile test.
That Harper is a former three-weight champion and yet the underdog is perhaps indicative of Dubois’ potential, and yet for all that accepted wisdom dictates that if she uses her boxing abilities she can be expected to record her 13th victory, by her own admission, discipline may not be one of her strengths.
It was in March 2025 when she entertainingly defended her WBC title against Bo Mi Re Shin and risked a far more competitive contest than necessary when she allowed the South Korean to draw her into a brawl. Thirteen months on instead of learning from the experience she spoke of her willingness to repeat it, which above all else may most appeal to MVP and Sky Sports.
“It was a good fight – I’m very happy with it and the challenge Bo was able to bring,” she told BoxingScene. “Perfect step up to where I am now. My fights are only gonna get harder – they’re not supposed to get easier, and I need to be prepared for them. You don’t want to be jumping into the fire and never tasted a blaze before. You have to know what that feels like and I know what that feels like.
“I enjoy fighting. I’m exciting. I never wanna be involved in boring fights. I’m never gonna be that girl who’d rather run around the ring for 10 rounds and pick a point – that’s not how I fight. I owe it to the fans to give them a fight worth watching. When I was having that fight in the last round I remember being in the moment and hearing the crowd. It was an amazing feeling. Maybe I got too caught up in it, but when the fight was over I thought ‘At least they enjoyed it’.”
The fighter inside Dubois has been seen more than ever since the date with Harper has been confirmed.
She has been confrontational in a way that she has rarely previously demonstrated, but insists that that owes to a sense of “respect”.
“In the ring, as a professional, on paper she’s definitely the most experienced [I’ve fought],” she said. “As a former three-weight world champion she’s definitely got the most accolades. But my career as a whole – who I’ve sparred; as an amateur who I was competing with – I’m not gonna put pressure on myself and build her up to be some type of monster. She’s not that. The more I put that on her I’m taking away from myself. But I know for sure that whatever she brings I’m gonna be ready for.
“Her mental strength – she doesn’t believe in herself. She lacks confidence. When push comes to shove, and the fire is underneath you, she’s the kind of person that wants to jump out and that’ll always be her biggest weakness. Forget all the physical deficiencies or strengths she has, that’s gonna be her problem.
“She’s always been a big name and someone in and around my weight. When she came back down and beat Rhiannon Dixon for the belt [in 2024] she instantly became a target. I’d already thought ‘That’d be an interesting fight’. But she got the belt and she gained a target and is someone I’ve targeted since then.
“I believe in myself; I back myself. I believe in my skills. Anytime someone comes into my proximity and says they think they can beat me; they think they’re better than me, I get triggered. She’s the opposite of whatever you have [to be] to beat me. She doesn’t have heart. She doesn’t fight with courage. She hasn’t got great skill. She hasn’t got a great jab. She hasn’t got great power. There’s nothing she does that’s gonna cause me trouble. She’s come up to me saying she’s gonna beat me – it’s a little bit offensive.
“I think about her when I run sometimes. I think about her when I’m getting ready for a particular spar that maybe mirrors her style and her stature, but that’s about it.
“[But] it is respect. She’s on my level. She’s not a journeywoman. She’s not naive; young. She’s older than me. She’s got more experience than me. We’re, on paper, the same level. I’ll always pay respect to my opponents by training as hard as I can. I use it as fuel – as motivation.”
Dubois was also asked if her former promoters Boxxer’s separation from Sky Sports, and the uncertainty that followed, was testing for her, and she responded: “It was. But I was having constant conversations with the people at Sky and then I started to meet up with [MVP] when my contract had expired. So I always knew there was alternative options.
“I was never in a position where I felt lost or in limbo or some kind of stuck. ‘It’s gonna work itself out.’”
