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With just nine fights in the professional boxing ring, Sandy Ryan is a veteran who has taken every knock and won glory in the dirty old fights.
On Saturday night in Sheffield, she defended her WBO welterweight title with a flawless performance that forced Terry Harper into retirement after four rounds. Harper is a super welterweight and WBA champion, but Ryan passed her by.
Ryan is now 30 years old and this was her first fight after moving her training from Derby to Las Vegas. With seven wins in nine fights, she has become one of the faces to watch in women's boxing.
Harper had a plan, tried to move, tried to pull Ryan away, but couldn't do anything. At the end of the fourth, her trainer and friend Steffy Bull shook her head. Bull called out the referee, Harper knew it, and Ryan was the winner. Such an outcome in a fierce, close and competitive fight is rare. Harper is still a heavyweight champion and a good fighter.
Liverpool's Tasha Jonas is an IBF champion at the same weight as Ryan, while Northampton's Chantel Cameron is a former champion of all four belts at the lower weight of light welterweight and is another option for a future fight. Future Olympic gold medalist Lauren Price will fight Jessica McCaskill for the WBA welterweight title in May.
It's a place where a lot of talent can flourish. Jonas and Harper fought to a controversial draw in 2020. Both Jonas and Ryan have deep amateur boxing pedigrees. A female boxer often feels like after 15 years of hard work in amateur competition, she became a star overnight.
“There are a lot of great games coming up and I want them all,” Ryan said. Last September, Ryan seemed unlucky not to beat McCaskill when the match in Florida ended in a draw. Price has only fought six fights, but he has a chance to mess up his form book if he competes for the title. Women's matches may be drawn by lottery, but the quality is top-notch.
Ryan lost her fourth fight against veteran and former world champion Erica Annabella Farias. That night, her heart broke and she made her tough decision. Just five months later, she faced Farias in a rematch and won easily. Two fights later she won the world title, then a draw for MacAskill, then a draw for Harper.
The women's game moves at a different pace than the men's game. The men can avoid gambling early because they take risks to move faster and there are hundreds of other men to win. There are currently 2,194 registered male welterweight athletes in the world. There are only 98 female welterweights.
Sandy Ryan takes on Terry Harper
(Action image via Reuters)
Ryan won gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia as an amateur, but missed out on the Tokyo Olympics and turned pro during the Olympics. Her first match took place behind closed doors at one of the lockdown shows in the gardens of Matchroom's headquarters. Farias' loss occurred just a few months later. No one would have fought someone like Farias so early. It's a cruel business, a woman's business.
Ryan won a silver medal at the 2010 European Youth Championships, which shows her depth. Major tournaments followed, and she competed around the world at European and World Championships. She met some of the best amateur boxers of her generation, and in some events fought five times in five days, fighting again a month later. In 2017 she defeated Price. It was Bulgaria's third match in five days at the tournament. The best woman right now is the best ever, hands down.
Terry Harper tries to avoid Sandy Ryan's punch
(Getty Images)
Sheffield's main event was Dalton Smith, whose fifth-round KO of Mexico's Jose Cepeda was horrifyingly impressive. Smith was on the same British team as Ryan at the 2010 European Schoolboys Championship in Bulgaria. They are veterans of the international amateur elite system that produces special talent. Both teams will have big battles this year.
