Female boxer awkwardly sits in silence for two hours at SPOTY and slams BBC over seating plan
TERRI HARPER awkwardly sat in silence for most of her evening at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards.
The 27-year-old is the current WBA and IBO super-welterweight champion.
Harper is used to packing a punch in the ring but could not find the strength to make conversation at SPOTY last night.
That’s because she was unfortunately told to sit next to her bitter rival Natasha Jonas for the entirety of the ceremony.
The pair were unable to put their feud to one side and the tension could be cut with a knife as they failed to make eye contact with each other.
And it appears the BBC‘s blunder has only added to their fuel to the fire of their dispute.
Harper cheekily slammed the seating plan as she tweeted: “Whoever did it has got some good banter… had a brilliant two hours sat in silence.”
She then posted a video of herself giving the camera a deep stare before naughtily turning it towards her arch-enemy, who was looking straight ahead.
The fighter nicknamed the Belter then joked: “A tumble weed would’ve made more noise.”
But it appears Jonas did not find it quite so funny as she brutally hit back on social media.
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The WBC and WBO light-middleweight belt holder said: “You have a lot less to say to my face it seems.”
Harper fans criticised Jonas for adding to the frosty atmosphere by making no effort to chat – but she was having none of it.
The 39-year-old responded: “We’re sitting in the audience to a live show, the respectful thing to do would be enjoy the show and not take snide vids, would you not think?”
Jonas also insisted in another tweet that she was enjoying the awards with her mum and had no time for any fighting talk.
Their row continued in the morning as Harper then replied: “Your one word answers to my small talk before the show made me realise you weren’t up for chatting anytime soon.”
And it didn’t stop there as Jonas fired back: “I’m just not into being two faced if I’m honest. Maybe it’s the generational gap.”
Jonas took a break from the beef to post a picture of herself with Tommy Fury and Nina Smith.
With the trio all smiles, she couldn’t resist a further dig in the caption, writing: “What normal boxers do when they meet other boxers. Thanks you for kind words of support, time and pic.”
Their feud initially began when they battled it out for the WBC title in 2020.
Harper retained her belt after a narrow split decision draw.
A second bout between them is on the cards as it would now be an all-British undisputed fight.
After Harper beat Ivana Habazin in May this year, she called out Jonas, saying: “Let’s put on the fight that everyone wants to see.
“That’s why I’ve come up to light-middleweight.
“I think it’s every boxer’s dream to become undisputed.”
Her promoter Eddie Hearn thinks that Jonas holds a grudge from their first clash at super-featherweight because she did not land the rematch she then wanted.
Harper was last in the ring in October as she drew to Cecilia Braekhus to maintain her 14-1-2 record.
As for Jonas, her last outing was a win over Kandi Wyatt in July to take her career to 14-1-2.