Natasha Jonas continues to break boundaries.
In 2012, Jonas made history by becoming the first British female boxer to ever qualify for the Olympic Games and her list of achievements continues to grow.
2022 was a banner year for Jonas. After falling just short in world title bids at super featherweight and lightweight, she stepped all the way up to super welterweight and blew through the 154lb division, collecting the WBO, WBC and IBF belts and becoming the first woman to win the British Boxing Board of Control’s British Boxer of the Year Award.
2023 has been a quieter campaign in the ring for the Liverpudlian. In July she dropped down to 147lbs and added the vacant IBF welterweight title to her collection, stopping Kandi Wyatt in her sole outing of the year but outside of the ropes she has made more history. Last week Jonas became the first black woman to be granted a manager’s license by the British Boxing Board of Control.
Her first fighter, Mikie Tallon, makes his professional debut this Saturday. After that, Jonas (14-2-1, 9 KO’s) will refocus her energies into the final stages of her own fighting career and she still has some big plans.
“I think it’s just the big fights I want now,” Jonas told BBTV. “No disrespect to Kandi Wyatt, that was a, ‘Let’s get the ball rolling for the year’ because we hadn’t fought since November kind of fight. The expectation was that there would be more fights on the horizon. I’m not too sure where that is at the moment because we’re running out of time and running out of dates.
“Obviously the fight that everyone’s talked about and that we both want is the Mikaela Mayer fight. It’s easy to make. She’s with Top Rank who are shown on Sky, I’m with Boxxer who are shown on Sky so there are no issues about who’s gonna show it and what platform it’s on.”
Mayer has jumped through the divisions herself this year. A career super featherweight, the former unified 130lb champion won a WBC interim lightweight title in March and boxed at super lightweight for the first time in September, beating Silvia Bortot.
“I’m ready for that fight [against Natasha Jonas],” Mayer told Sky Sports after the Bortot fight. “I have been preparing my body to go up. It’s a big jump, going from 130 pounds to 147 pounds. It takes time to undo what I did to keep my body down at that weight for so many years.
“But I’ve already been working on it. I’m prepared to go to 147 pounds, and I’m prepared to take on Natasha Jonas right away.”
There are unsubstantiated rumors that the t’s are close to being crossed and the i’s are about to be dotted on a deal between Mayer and Jonas with a date penciled in for the first quarter of next year. Jonas may be nearing the end of her groundbreaking career but as high profile as the Mayer fight would be, she isn’t looking at it as some kind of golden handshake from the sport. There are still scores she wants to settle and a hit list of names she wants on her record before she takes on the challenge of guiding fighters through the maze of professional boxing that she has successfully negotiated.
“It’s all about making the big fights and to be honest I’m more experienced and I don’t think I’ve got a very long time left in the sport so it’s the fights that are personal to me that I want,” Jonas said. “There are fights that the fans want to see, fights that Ben [Shalom, of Boxxer] wants to make, fights that Sky want to show and fights that I want. Somewhere, you’ve got to keep a happy medium between them.
“If I was to say three fights, I’d love the Mikaela Mayer fight, I’d love some kind of revenge on Katie Taylor [who outpointed her in a fight for the undisputed lightweight title in 2021] and I’d love a Chantelle Cameron fight. They’re just personal to me.”