Natasha Jonas continued her goal of capturing more gold, by becoming the first-ever two-weight world champion from the city of Liverpool as she added the IBF world welterweight championship to her collection in Manchester.
Canada’s Kandi Wyatt put in a gutsy performance but was outclassed almost from the opening bell as Jonas, 39, put on a clinic to remind the women’s boxing world that she remains a top-tier competitor with her eyes on the top prizes in the sport.
Halfway into the eighth round the referee had seen enough, stepping into stop Wyatt taking any more punishment from the surging Jonas, who is also the holder of the WBC, WBO and IBF junior middleweight championship titles.
“I can’t sum that up. Thank you to everyone who spent their hard earned money to be here,” Jonas said post-fight.
Jonas now has a range of big options for her next outing and has been linked with Chantelle Cameron and Jessica McCaskill, but in the immediate term will be taking a month-long family holiday as she weighs her next options.
Her promoter, Ben Shalmon of Boxxer, wants to get his boxer the biggest fights possible.
“Now we get to have fun. The pressure is off,” said Shalom to BBC Sport. “She’s won multiple world titles. Now she can fight at the weight divisions that I’m most excited about. We get to welterweight, she wins her first world title, now she can look at the big names.
“At welterweight you’ve got Sandy Ryan and Jess McCaskill. Where she’s looking at is the super lightweight division: Chantelle Cameron and Katie Taylor. I’m excited for her because she deserves those names and I hope to be able to deliver that in the next 12 months.
“She will probably be thinking she has two or three more fights left and she wants the biggest names possible.”