Terri Harper produced a near punch perfect performance to retain her WBC super-featherweight title as she stopped Katharina Thanderz in the ninth round at Wembley.

After scraping a draw in her first defence of the title against Natasha Jonas in August, this was an all-together more impressive display by Harper. She kept at range, used her jab well and was in and out with sharp hooks, completely dominating the Spain-based Norwegian.

It was hard to fault Harper, who never gave Thanderz an opening, and looked a class above.

“I learnt from [the Jonas fight],” Harper said. “I was expecting a tough fight and I just my right hand in the fourth round. But stuck to the game plan and listened to everything Andrew [Stefy Bull, her trainer] said to me.”

Eddie Hearn said he hoped that Harper would become undisputed champion next year, having recently signed WBA champion Hyun Mi Choi and IBF champion Maiva Hamadouche. “We’re interested in the Mikaela Mayer fight too,” Hearn said.

Harper started well, keeping at range and scoring with one-twos. Thanderz tried to ride the early attacks, but despite pressing forward. She found next to no success.

For the first five rounds, Harper simply picked her apart, getting through with hard rights and finding Thanderz open for the left hook when she was stood close.

In the sixth round, Thanderz got more aggressive, pushing forward behind a straight left jab, but the times she did manage to pin Harper on the ropes, it was the English boxer who landed the better.

The Norwegian was getting more and more desperate, but Harper kept her workrate up.  In the eighth round Harper went on the retreat, forcing Thanderz to plod after her, but Harper was picking her off.

Thanderz never gave up, but her evening got worse in the ninth round when a clash of heads saw blood spurt from her nose.  Moments later, Thanderz was hurt by a body shot and Harper jumped on her, driving her round the ring with a series of head and body shots before Victor Loughlin, the referee, called it off at 1:12 of the round.

Ron Lewis is a senior writer for Boxing Scene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.