Boxing: Terri Harper wins on debut - and it could be the start of something special

Doncaster’s first female professional boxer has her first bout and first win under her belt after convincingly outpointing opponent Monika Antonik at The Dome last weekend.

Terri Harper is up and running in her pro career and the initial signs of her making an impact on the sport look promising indeed.

The 21-year-old delivered an assured performance, showcasing a wide variety of shots, decent movement and good discipline.

Harper was certainly fitter than her Polish opponent and she took advantage of that, moving constantly and sending out plenty of shots.

She was open to a few jabs from Antonik but was never unduly troubled and dominated all four rounds to take the verdict.

As first impressions go it was pretty impressive. Arguably, in skills terms, Harper delivered the performance of the night on a packed and eventful card of boxing.

Trainer and manager Stefy Bull was delighted with Harper’s debut.

“Terri was excellent, I was really impressed,” Bull said.

“She showed a lot of good stuff, some great skill and it went really well.

“She eased off in the third round and got caught with a few daft shots but I gave her a rollicking in the corner at the end of the round and she finished the fight strongly.

“I couldn’t have expected much more from her.

“I was over the moon with the performance.”

Despite her impressive debut, the plan for Harper remains a slow and steady build.

She will almost certainly face foreign opposition on the next Dome show on February 24.

Bull said: “Terri is just a baby at 21. There is so much improvement that she can make and she’s got all the time in the world to do it.

“She’ll be in a very similar fight in February and probably her first ten fights are going to be against a similar standard of opponent.

“We’re doing things right with Terri, building her up gradually and making sure she’ll be ready when she does make that step up in class.

“It’s very exciting and what I saw on Saturday night has me even more excited than I was before.”