Natasha Jonas is hoping to use her MBE to enhance the impact she has been having in her home of Liverpool, England.
The former unified welterweight and junior-middleweight world champion is to be recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours, for services to boxing and to the community in Liverpool.
Aged 41 and following her defeat by Wales’ Lauren Price in March, her career as a professional fighter may be over, but Jonas is already witnessing the way that her influence has increased as a consequence of her being awarded an MBE.
Jonas was the first female to represent Great Britain at an Olympic Games, as she did in London in 2012. She has also had a sufficiently successful professional career that she was named the British Boxing Board of Control’s boxer of the year for 2022, and worked as a broadcaster for Sky Sports.
She regardless insists that it is her work with children and others in and near her home city she is most passionate about – in 2020 during the height of the Covid pandemic she offered free boxing lessons and food packages to those in need.
“When you talk about the corporate world and you’re looking for sponsors and funding – I’m doing stuff with Alder Hey Children’s [Charity], and the first thing they put on their new [material] was ‘Natasha Jonas MBE’,” she told BoxingScene. “It carries a lot of weight for everybody else but me – it doesn’t change who I am or why I do it. It just makes it look better for everyone else.
“I don’t ever do anything for gratification from others. I do it ‘cause it makes me feel good. In boxing I’m aiming to achieve my goals, and it’s the same when in the community.
“I love being around kids and motivating them to do better and be better, and also because it makes me feel good to do that. I get the stuff in the ring, but I’m prouder to be recognised for what I do for the community and charities and schools, because that’s personal.”
It was in February when her long-term trainer Joe Gallagher revealed that he had been diagnosed with stage four bowel and liver cancer. Gallagher, regardless, prepared her for Price and worked her corner that evening, and in light of learning she is being honoured has been typically vocal in his praise of her.
“Everyone knows how close of a connection me and Joe have,” Jonas said. “He’s stuck by me through thick and thin – the things we’ve been through – so it’s good to have a bit of positivity when you need it most. [The proudest person is] between, probably, him, me uncle [Paul], and me mum [Esther].”
Following the defeat by Price, Gallagher spoke again of his desire to see Jonas retire, and, asked if her MBE had made the end of her career likelier, she responded: “I don’t think it influences it. The longer you’re out, the harder it is to come back. Opportunities – big opportunities – are available to me if I did want to.
“But right now I’m just enjoying doing what I’m doing. If one of them opportunities presents itself, it’d have to be big to bring me back – I don’t just want to come back to get a win or come back for a silly fight. It has to be something that motivates me and means something to me.”