On Saturday night, Natasha Jonas claimed her third world championship in the super welterweight division to stake her claim to being the best woman in the world at 154lbs, and one of the pound-for-pound women on the planet, in her victory over Marie Dicaire at an electric AO Arena, Manchester.

Both women came into this fight as world champions, and both showed world championship spirit in their performances, with Jonas taking victory by unanimous decision (100-90, 98-92, 97-93) over 10 hard-fought rounds. Jonas landed big shots from the first round and had her opponent hurt at multiple points across the fight, but Dicaire fired back and didn’t stop coming forward all fight, giving the unified champion a lot to deal with. 

Dicaire showed no sign of slowing down in the final rounds of the fight, and pushed Jonas back up against the ropes and fired off ferocious hooks to the body. Jonas was forced to use all of her skill and boxing ability to handle the torrent of offense coming towards her in the second half of the fight. That skill and the rounds she claimed in the early portion of the fight was enough to secure the victory for Jonas on the judges’ scorecards.

Jonas, the first woman to fight for Team GB at the Olympics, failed to claim a world championship on the first two attempts of career, but has shown stunning heart and determination to win three over the last 9 months, and has now established herself as the best fighter in the world at a weight class 24 lbs heavier than where she first fought for a world title.

She has several possible options to pursue - including a rematch with undisputed lightweight champion Katie Taylor or a fight with undisputed welterweight champion Jessica McCaskill. There is also the possibility of Claressa Shields, the undisputed champion at middleweight, moving back to 154 to face Jonas.

"She wants the Katie Taylor rematch. She wants Jessica McCaskill for all the [welterweight] belts. She wants Claressa Shields [at super-welter]. She feels she's completed everything," Jonas' promoter Ben Shalom told Sky Sports.

"[A Jonas-Taylor rematch] is the fight that makes the most sense if we're all thinking about where we could go. We saw what Shields-Marshall did. If we take a step back and say 'how do we make something really special', I think Jonas is the biggest name now I would say from England in women's boxing and Katie Taylor is a huge star of the sport, between her and Claressa Shields for the biggest star.

"That for me is the fight that's going to get the most attention from the casual fans, from the biggest audiences. I think it's the fight that will get the biggest audience at this time with the support Natasha's had on Sky and obviously where Katie Taylor's at. So hopefully they may be sensible on the other side and we can make that fight.

"It has to appeal to Katie. We respect Katie Taylor massively. She will have seen Tasha Jonas' ascendancy over the past year and I think if she wants a legacy fight, if she wants the biggest fight possible and she wants something to take home that fans can really buy into then I think Tasha Jonas is the fight. I think I would not be averse to Natasha Jonas going to fight Katie Taylor at Croke Park."