Boxing: Unified light-middleweight champion on unforgettable year
Natasha Jonas has had an unforgettable year. The WBO and WBC light-middleweight champion, the 38-year-old Liverpudlian will look to win a third world title in nine months when she faces Marie-Eve Dicaire at the Manchester Arena on Saturday
Jonas realised her dream of becoming a world champion in February by knocking out Chris Namus, before unifying in September with a unanimous points victory over Patricia Berghult.
“Twelve months ago, I didn’t know how I was going to be a world champion, but I just knew I wanted to be one,” she said.
Huge fights await in 2023 if Jonas can continue her winning streak, whether it’s an undisputed fight with newly crowned WBA champion Terri Harper or scrap with unbeaten American Claressa Shields.
But Jonas hasn’t always had such good times; more than once she has come back from the brink of boxing.
‘I didn’t want to end my boxing career
To say Jonas has had a turbulent career would be an understatement.
The first female boxer to compete for Great Britain, Jonas was also the first woman to fight for Team GB, at the Olympic Games in London in 2012. But she fell short in her quest to win a medal, losing to Ireland’s Katie Taylor in the quarter-finals.
She came away from those fights knowing there was unfinished business.
“After losing to Obenauf, I didn’t want to leave it like that, I didn’t want to end my boxing career like that.” She said.
“I knew I had something more to give. With some of the results not going my way, I was thinking, will becoming a world champion ever happen?”
I’ve never turned down a fight’
It did happen on the third time asking when Jonas scored a dominant victory over Uruguayan former world champion Namus.
“Relief was the first emotion,” she explained.
“It was like, finally, I’ve done it. Then it was joy, then it was exciting, and then just sharing a moment with everyone, which was special.”
A Liverpool homecoming followed, and Jonas outclassed the previously undefeated Berghult.
According to Jonas, “There were nerves because all my family was there and it’s in Liverpool, but the night went perfectly, everything went well and it was just another where I was thinking right, that’s done.’ I had fun and I enjoyed myself. Now the pressure is off. I represent a whole heap of Jonases, a whole heap of Liverpool, a whole heap of Scousers, and I don’t ever want to let them down.”
Jonas – who has won 12 of her 15 fights as a professional – will now look to complete a hat-trick of world titles when she takes on Dicaire for the IBF belt.
The Canadian has a pro record of 18-1, with her one loss against undisputed world middleweight champion Shield.
This will be the first time Jonas has headlined as a professional at a major venue – and she is firmly focused, even though a super-fight with Shields may be on the horizon.
BBC/Samuel Isaiah
