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Nick Parkinson
Caroline Dubois celebrated her 24th birthday in anticlimactic fashion with a third-round technical draw against Jessica Camara in a brief first defense of her WBC world lightweight title.
But Dubois (10-0-1, 5 KOs), who is the younger sister of IBF world heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois, dominated in the two rounds completed and dropped Camara (14-4-1, 3 KOs) in Round 1 amid a ferocious start.
The Londoner then resumed her onslaught in Round 2 and the fight was then stopped before the start of Round 3 due to a cut above Camara’s left eye caused by a clash of heads at the Park Community Arena in Sheffield, England.
“I don’t think she wanted it, I put her down with a straight right in the first round, and her right eye was swollen from a punch,” Dubois said. “The blood wasn’t coming in her face and she didn’t want it. It was either getting stopped by a doctor or was stopping it.”
It was a frustrating outcome for southpaw Dubois, but there was no fault in anything about her explosive performance and she already looks the boss at lightweight despite having only 11 professional fights.
Dubois, who was promoted from WBC interim champion to full world champion in December after Katie Taylor vacated the WBC world title, is now focusing on a unification fight against one of the other world lightweight champions: IBF champion Beatriz Ferreira (6-0, 2 KOs), of Brazil, or her English rival and WBO titleholder Terri Harper (15-2-2, 6 KOs).
“Terri Harper is all I want [next],” Dubois said.
It only took Dubois a minute to trouble Camara, 36, who was dropped by a slick one-two combination. The Montreal, Canada-based challenger got to her feet and was able to avoid succumbing by the end of Round 1 but she was then left with a nasty cut above her left eye in Round 2.
Camara was inspected by the ringside doctor before the start of Round Three and the fight was then waved off.
In the main event, Callum Smith stormed to a second-round stoppage win over Steed Woodhall in a first defence of his British super middleweight title.
Simpson (16-0, 11 KOs), 28, from Barnsley, floored Woodhall (19-3-1, 12 KOs), 30, of Birmingham, in Round 2 with a flurry of hooks and uppercuts, and then followed up to force the stoppage which was disputed by Woodhall’s team.
It was Simpson’s first fight since the death of his sister Lily-Rae Simpson, 19, in an accident on a quad bike while on holiday last summer.
