Natasha Jonas is relishing the “fear factor” with which she will enter Friday’s fight with Lauren Price.
The IBF and WBC welterweight champion fights Wales’ Price, the WBA champion, at London’s Royal Albert Hall, and does so aware that she is the underdog against a promising opponent.
That Price is 30 and Jonas is 10 years her senior has contributed to the belief that their promoters Boxxer and broadcaster Sky Sports see greater value in victory for the younger and fresher of the two fighters.
Jonas is entering her 20th professional contest and Price her ninth, and following a longer-term build-up to an occasion that falls on the eve of International Women’s Day and which represents the main event of an all-female promotion – Jonas and Price fought and won separate fights on the same promotion in December – their relationship has become increasingly tense.
Jessica McCaskill is perhaps the only one of Price’s previous opponents close to as proven as Jonas, but aware of the potential for Friday’s fight to prove definitive in both of their careers, Jonas told BoxingScene: “The fear factor is the bit I love. You get this fight or flight, and I’m all about fighting. When I’m the underdog; when I’m not expected to do well; when everything’s against me is when you see the best version of Natasha.
“I definitely am [the underdog]. This is supposed to be a passing-of-the-torch kind of moment, and I’m way behind in bookies’ odds, I’m told. But that’s to their detriment, not mine.
“That’s just the natural progression [for the younger fighter to be backed]. It’s just the natural progression of boxing. You get to these moments – we missed it with [Joe] Calzaghe and [Carl] Froch, but people still wonder what would have happened. But we don’t have to wonder here, and we get to find out on March 7.
“I keep saying it. I haven’t reached that ceiling, and I don’t know what that ceiling’s going to look like – whether it’s perfection, whether it’s defeat, whatever it is. But until I reach that personal moment where I think, ‘Right, I can’t get any better’, or, ‘That’s as far as I can go’, only I’ll ever know that. Until that time, I’ll keep continuing to fight. I’ve still got big nights and big fights and big performances left in me, and that’s what drives me and motivates me for fights like this.
“She’s a great fighter. Fundamentally – you don’t get to Olympic champion [as Price did at Tokyo 2020] without being a great fighter. I just think everything that she’s got, I’m better [at]. That’s the be all and end all.
“She’s got good footwork; fast hands, and I think she’s banking on that alone to be enough. But it’s not going to be enough.”
Towards the conclusion of 2024 Boxxer’s Ben Shalom spoke of his desire to again prioritise progressing women’s boxing, having seen it stall in the wake of the investment from Saudi Arabia in mostly male fights.
Jonas’ age appeared to put her at risk of missing out on the rewards that could follow the foundations she did so much to contribute to for the wider development of women’s boxing, and she called on the Saudi Arabian powerbrokers – who on Wednesday spoke again about their plans for a boxing league – to “do something great for women in the sport”.
“After the [in 2018, Viviane] Obenauf defeat I did question myself,” she said. “But not for Sky and not for Boxxer, because [they’re] being fundamental for the push and the drive for inclusivity in sport, and in particular women’s boxing.
“Saudi have got the opportunity to do something great. They can either leave women’s boxing behind, or they can include it in their shows, and we’ve seen the likes of Claressa [Shields] pipe up and say, ‘Turki [Alalshikh], we’re here too – we’ve got big fights too’. Events like this, and when it sells out, and when they see the viewing figures, go to prove how big it can be when it’s treated the same.
“Turki and the rest of the Saudi team have got a big decision to make over whether they want to include that as part of their repertoire. They’ve got such huge initiatives for women in Saudi at the moment. I think they could do something great for women in sport.”