Every fighter hopes that when the stakes are at their highest, they can produce their best performance.

Last September, Sandy Ryan did just that but despite appearing to dominate much of her welterweight title unification fight with Jessica McCaskill, the 30-year-old from Derby had to settle for a split draw.

Just about the only people who didn’t believe that Ryan (6-1-1, 2 KOs) had done enough to add McCaskill’s WBC, WBA and IBO welterweight titles to her own WBO belt were the three judges.

Rather than pride at her showing, Ryan’s overriding memory of the night was the feeling of frustration and disappointment when the decision was announced.

The feeling of injustice will never subside, but when she thinks back about what happened during the actual fight, Ryan can find plenty to be satisfied with.

“I was happy all round because I thought it was gonna be tougher than it was,” Ryan told boxingscene.com. “I’m not saying it wasn’t tough because she’s a great fighter and a tough fighter. But I feel like the way I boxed her, I felt good. I just take the positives away from that fight. The experience and what I gained from it, the support I gained from it.”

It seemed like that support would force an immediate rematch but boxing politics quickly put paid to those hopes. 

McCaskill was instead linked to a mandatory WBC title defence against Ivana Habazin but then pivoted and agreed a deal to face the unbeaten Lauren Price.

By deciding not to move ahead with the mandated defence against Habazin, McCaskill will likely lose her WBC belt and defend her remaining WBA, IBO and Ring Magazine titles when she boxes Price in Cardiff on May 11.

Realising how the situation was likely to develop, Ryan decided that it was time to move on with her career.

In the months following the fight with McCaskill, Ryan signed a management deal with Brian Peters and made the difficult decision to split from her long term trainer, Clifton Mitchell, and move out to Las Vegas where she trains at the DLX Boxing Gym. 

“There was frustration because the rightful thing was a rematch,” she said. “The whole boxing world wanted to see that. It’s just hard. With the politics side, the business side, mandatories and all stuff like that it’s all out of your hands. What can I do? I can just move on, defend my belt and hopefully get a rematch later on. We’ll see.

“It’s a different route isn’t it. There are a lot of big fights to be made. It’s exciting to be fair.”

That route begins with a title defence against Doncaster’s two-weight world champion Terri Harper (14-1-2, 6 KOs) in Sheffield this weekend (March 23). 

Although she is two years younger than Ryan, the experienced Harper – who currently holds the WBA super welterweight title – was one of the fighters who helped catapult female boxing to its current status. Ryan is very much part of the new wave.

“I’m the new era,” Ryan said with a laugh. “I suppose you could put it like that. However people want to see it, old versus new or whatever. I am older than her, though.”

Ryan is quietly spoken but comes alive as a fight approaches. The build-up has been extremely respectful but although the two are friendly, Ryan is promising that the intensity will be ratcheted up throughout fight week.

In 2021, the self assured Alycia Baumgardner clearly sensed that Harper wasn’t herself ahead of their WBC/IBO super featherweight title fight and increasingly made her presence felt. She got to Harper in the fourth round and took her titles. 

Last year, Cecila Braekhus withdrew on the morning of their scheduled WBA super welterweight title fight citing illness but Harper later admitted that she had let the pressure and attention of being involved in such a big fight get to her. She finally boxed Braekhus last October and appeared fortunate to get a draw with the Norwegian legend. 

Harper seems likely to be extremely well suited to welterweight but has another confident and determined fighter in front of her this weekend. 

“It’s not gonna be my gameplan, it’s gonna be real. I’m coming in with a lot of confidence and Terri will see that. You’ll all see it. It’s no game plan, it’s real. I’m coming confident,” Ryan said.

“If a fighter wants to bite then I’ll give it her back. I’m a calm fighter. I feel like with Terri there isn’t much going on. She’s a quiet fighter. I’ve commented on some of her stuff trying to get a little bit and she just comes back with something funny. You can’t really get much from Harper. I respect her as a fighter and as a girl. She’s a great girl.

“Harper is always in shape. She’s a great athlete. She looks well and she’s come up in the weights perfectly to be fair.

“That switch with me is fight week and it’s like I have a purpose for me to win and even more purpose for me to win this fight. Harper will definitely see it in my eyes and the switch will be flicked fight week. That’s when I’ll be in fight mode. You can’t take what’s mine.”

Female fighters tend to move much more quickly than their male counterparts but Ryan has still managed to cram more into the space of eight fights than many boxers – male or female – manage in their entire careers.

She was moved quickly after a successful amateur career but had to show character to avenge a shock early defeat to the experienced Erica Farias. She won the WBO welterweight title and travelled to America to box for the unified crown. Now she begins her second run at the undisputed title with a new training and management team and her first all-British world title fight.

Ryan believes that the good, the bad, the ups and the downs have all helped to shape the fighter who will step between the ropes on Saturday night. 

“It’s like anything in life – not even just boxing – things happen good and bad and you need both of them to make you who you are,” she said. “Without them in my career I wouldn’t be where I am right now and I wouldn’t be the person I am. I wouldn’t have grown into who I am. I feel like I’m a much different person now to what I was at the start of my career. I present myself much better. I’m glad they’ve happened. At the time I wasn’t so glad. It’s made me who I am now. I’ve learned so much. Things happen in life and I believe things need to happen for you to get to where you want to be.”