Terry Harper thinks Caroline Dubois may have blinked first during the psychological game leading up to Sunday’s game.
The boxing match between Harper and Dubois, who aim to unify the WBO and WBC lightweight titles, will be broadcast live on Sky Sports.
The verbal sparring between the two continues to escalate ahead of their match at London’s Olympia. Earlier in game week, Harper shoved Dubois during a photo shoot.
Harper suggested that it would upset the other person.
“She panicked. She went off script. It wasn’t what she was prepared for and she didn’t know what to do,” Harper told Sky Sports.
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Tensions between Harper and Dubois were high ahead of Sunday’s unification match.
The Doncaster fighter said he shoved Dubois for standing in front of him as she posed for the cameras.
“She’s very predictable. I actually knew she was going to do it because the first time she did it at the last press conference, there was a good reaction. I just knew she was going to do it,” Harper said.
“Let’s just give her a little push to remind her that I’m not here to fight, I’m not here to make up numbers, I’m here to strip her of the belt.
“I’m very easy-going, very calm and collected, but when it comes to fighting, I turn on, so people will probably take my kindness as weakness. It was just a little reminder that she’s going to be fighting on Sunday.”
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Dubois and Harper meet for the first time in Fight Week
Harper claims to have identified another weakness in Dubois’ preparation for the fight.
In preparation for unifying the world titles, Dubois spent several weeks sparring in the United States.
“She has concerns about the camp,” Harper said.
“She had something that wasn’t working at camp and she followed it somewhere else.”
Dubois, of course, views the decision to split training between the US and UK as entirely different.
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Dubois slams Harper at February press conference
This gave her even more sparring partners. “It was a great round. The sparring with the guys who were out (too) was really sharp,” Dubois told Sky Sports. “The American style is completely different.
“I thought combining that with altitude training would be really beneficial.
“It’s just a different style of training. The training there is totally different. I was able to learn some things from that. The mindset, the training, the work ethic, all of that is phenomenal.”
“I think as an athlete you have to keep trying to learn, keep trying to improve on who you were and keep moving forward.”
Watch Caroline Dubois vs Terry Harper live on Sky Sports this Sunday from 7pm.
