Terri Harper, Natasha Jonas battle to split draw at Fight Camp

Nothing was settled in the main event of the second Fight Camp card Friday night in Essex, England.

Junior lightweight titleholder Terri Harper, a rising star, and Natasha Jonas fought to an entertaining 10-round draw without spectators in the garden of the Matchroom Boxing offices.

One judge had it 96-94 for Harper, the second 96-95 for Jones and the third 95-95. Thus, Harper retained her belt.

Jonas (9-1-1, 7 KOs) was a significant underdog but didn’t fight like it, giving as much as she took in a back-and-forth battle with Harper (10-0-1, 5 KOs) that could’ve gone either way.

And the 2012 Olympian did it even though she suffered a cut above her right eye in the second round and is 13 years Harper’s senior. Jonas is 36, Harper 23.

Harper had expected to break down Jonas but her countrywoman proved to be resilient.

“I know I hurt her,” Harper said. “She hurt me a few times. I’m disappointed by my performance but that was only my 11th competition on the big stage. That was a big learning fight for me. I felt it, I felt my legs go, I sucked it up and dug deep for the last two rounds.

“I knew she was a tough opponent but I didn’t expect her to come out like that! Massive respect. Tasha is someone I looked up to. I could tell the class she had. Maybe I underestimated her a bit.”

Jones thought she did enough to win.

“I won the eighth clearly,” she said. “I thought I won the ninth and 10th. It was close. I had myself one or two up. History in the making and it was an honor to share them. She made some statements which I had to prove wrong, to her but to myself as well.

“All eyes were on women’s boxing and hopefully we made the public proud. One million percent I’d do that again!”

Jonas lost in the quarterfinals of the 2012 Londaon Games to eventual gold medalist Katie Taylor.

In other fights on the card, Anthony Fowler (13-1, 10 KOs) stopped Adam Harper (9-2, 0 KOs) in seven rounds in a scheduled 10-round middleweight fight; Hopey Price (3-0, 1 KOs) easily outpointed Jonny Phillips (5-5, 2 KOs) in a six-round junior lightweight bout; and Chris Billam-Smith (11-1, 10 KOs) knocked out Nathan Thorley (14-1, 6 KOs) in the second round to retain the Commonweath cruiserweight title.