Terri Harper beats Eva Wahlstrom to win WBC super-featherweight title
- Published
Harper won with scores of 98-91 and two verdicts of 99-90
Britain's Terri Harper claimed the WBC super-featherweight title with a unanimous points victory over Finland's Eva Wahlstrom at the Sheffield Arena.
Harper is only Great Britain's second major female world champion, following the recently retired Nicola Adams, who was the WBO world flyweight champion.
The 23-year-old from Doncaster was competing in only her 10th fight, having turned professional in 2017.
Wahlstrom, 39, had lost only one of her 26 previous bouts.
Harper, who won the IBO title with a unanimous decision against Viviane Obenauf in November, said: "I'm 23 years old and I've just done this, I've just made history. I never thought I would get to this point."
Promoter Eddie Hearn predicted a bright future for the Yorkshire fighter and said: "I believe she is going to go on and unify the division."
Wahlstrom's one previous defeat came when she stepped up to lightweight against unbeaten Irish champion Katie Taylor at Madison Square Garden in 2018.
Harper started strongly against her experienced opponent and felled her in the seventh round with a rapid left-right combination, with Wahlstrom unable to find way back into the contest.
"That was an atmosphere worthy of any main event," Hearn said. "Eva Wahlstrom is a big star in her country and this is a great story. Boxing changes lives. We have a rough diamond here in Terri Harper."
Jane Couch, who after a legal fight was the first woman to be granted a licence to box in the UK in 1998, was world champion with now defunct organisations.
- Published7 December 2019
