“She hasn’t done anything.”
Caroline Dubois left Terri Harper lost for words.
The Londoner subjected the three-weight world champion to a cold salvo of trash-talking as the rivals filmed the latest episode of The Gloves Are Off.
Harper couldn’t hide her disbelief. After all, the Yorkshirewoman isn’t just the reigning WBO lightweight world champion. She’s previously held major titles at super-featherweight and super-welterweight too.
She was stung to see her achievements disparaged. “Tell me what you’ve done. Another stupid comment,” she responded.
But Harper was angry.
The WBO champion warned Dubois, the unbeaten holder of the WBC belt, not to make the mistake of writing her off.
Caroline Dubois and Terri Harper go head to head on The Gloves Are Off
“To be overlooking me and just thinking I’m going to be laid down and let her take the belt,” Harper said.
She told Dubois: “I’m here to make you taste your first defeat and rebuild and see how it feels.
“She’s got a lot of maturing to do.”
Dubois though maintained her icy ferocity. She told Harper directly: “I don’t rate you. I don’t rate what you’ve done, I don’t rate who you are as an athlete, as a fighter, as a person, I don’t rate it.
“I believe respect is earned, never given. I don’t think she’s earned my respect. She wants me to come and be nice,” Dubois added. “And I’m not going to do that.”
Their unification clash for the WBC and WBO titles on Sunday April 5, live on Sky Sports, has become increasingly personal and their head-to-head on camera at The Gloves Are Off, as well as a lingering confrontation afterwards, is testament to that.
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Caroline Dubois and Terri Harper get into heated verbal exchange at the end of Gloves Are Off ahead of their bout on Sunday April 5 live on Sky Sports
“This fight for me is not about the belts. It’s nice to win the belts. But it’s even nicer to beat Dubois,” Harper declared.
The WBC champion was determined to goad Harper. “I look at her and I think she’s quite pathetic,” Dubois said.
But she added: “This is a woman who’s coming to take my belt, coming to take everything I’ve been fighting for since I was nine years old, coming to take my legacy that I believe I can lay and obviously my future.
“If she wins, she’s taken all of that.”
Watch The Gloves Are Off: Caroline Dubois v Terri Harper at 6.30pm on Sunday on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Action.
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