Natasha Jonas: “I fight on to achieve something bigger.“

Natasha Jonas: “I fight on to achieve something bigger.“

Natasha Jonas has been here many times before. Fight negotiations that come and go with no reward. There will be at some stage when the gloves are hung up and the lawyers are satisfied, a ‘warts and all’ autobiography where Jonas will reveal all. Talks have been ongoing with the WBA and IBO super-welterweight champion Hannah Rankin for much of the last few months. But Rankin has gone elsewhere, a fight with Terri Harper will be her next ring walk. Jonas with all the previous, isn’t bitter or resentful she told me over Zoom:

“I’m not really bothered now that I have got a good replacement. I’ve got to remember when I was in her situation when I had better offers on the table and because certain people advise you to take certain offers it doesn’t mean you have to. After the Katie Taylor fight, I had people advising me to stay with Eddie but I thought the Sky offer was the better deal. You have to look at the bigger picture and where you want to go. Boxing is a business and you have to do what is best for your business. I was initially annoyed, but when I sat down and thought about it and took my emotions out of it, I have been where she is, so hats off to her and good luck to her.”

Jonas and her team have tried on two occasions to make the fight with Rankin. When I asked if Jonas would entertain a third-time lucky option if Rankin beats Harper when they meet later this year, she was non-committal but not totally dismissive of the thought:

“I think I would look at the options when they come it is all you can do in this game you never know what will happen.”

There is an old rival who could enter her world once again if Harper manages to beat Rankin. Jonas/Harper is still unfinished business, and wins by both in their upcoming fights, could set them on a collision path for a big unification showdown. There is history between the pair, words have been exchanged, not all of them pleasant, since their epic tussle in 2020. Jonas is undecided if she would fight Harper again:

“It would probably be an easy fight to make because Eddie would probably say go to Sky where they will pay you more money. I can’t fight on DAZN or elsewhere it is written in my contract. Part of me thinks yes I’ll fight Terri because I beat her before. But another part of me says no because they kept me waiting last time dangling strings in front of me saying we’ll fight you in three fights time. So that part of me says I’ll do the same.”

The loss of the Rankin fight has been softened by quickly getting another fight over the line. In a matter of days, a fight with the unbeaten WBC super-welterweight champion Patricia Berghult was signed, sealed, and delivered. A better fight. A more difficult one. But the prize on offer makes it a risk worth taking:

“I think the Bergult fight is 100% a harder fight than the Rankin fight. As a total package, I think she is better equipped than Hannah. It is riskier but I think it comes with a bigger reward, the WBC belt. At 154, she is a champion who is undefeated and just maybe it will be appreciated.”

Despite her immense popularity, there is that small section on Social Media that can’t be pleased no matter what. But there is an acceptance now of the situation from Jonas:

“I am kind of not bothered about anyone else anymore. You can spend your whole life trying to please people but it is never going to happen. I took a long time to figure it out, but I don’t really care what anyone thinks anymore.”

Jonas at 38 has limited time left in the sport. It could be three fights and done. Or less. Despite winning her maiden world title in February, ambitions still remain:

“I would like to go out undisputed that is why I want the McCaskill fight. To all have all the belts in your trophy cabinet, and to go on Sky and it says unified or undisputed, it looks good. You are always changing your goals, first, it was winning one world title and now it’s another and then another.”

Retirement is close, and the likelihood is that 2023 will be her last year in the sport. Many fighters fight on looking for what has been lost forever. Jonas is one fighter who you sense will know when the gloves need to be hung up for good:

“I’d like to think I will know when it is time to retire. I’ve told my mum and my cousin who are the people I am closest to, that they need to tell me as well. You always think you have still got it. I still see boxers in their sixties saying they have still got it and I think if only you knew you haven’t. But I would like to think I would know. There is that security as well, I always wondered what I would do after boxing, but now I have Sky and there are other things I can do as well, so that is a little bit different now. Sometimes if you are not a Ricky Hatton or an Anthony Joshua you might worry about where your next penny is coming from.

“I fight on to achieve something bigger. The camps are getting harder but I am still breaking PBs, I’m still getting better and getting stronger. I am even leaner now than when I was fighting Terri at super-featherweight which is absolutely bizarre. While your body is still reacting like that you still have more to give I still feel in my mind that I have more to give. When I was on Team GB I literally woke up one more morning and thought I don’t want to go there anymore. It then became a chore and a slog to get up and drive to Sheffield. I obviously got injured which was kind of the tipping point, but mentally I was already done. So I like to think I will know when it is time to retire as a pro.”

But there are still goals left to achieve before retirement comes calling. First up is Berghult, a richly deserved homecoming. The ‘Echo’ might have a different name on the door, but it will carry the same meaning. A special night for ‘Miss GB.’

“There is no place like home regardless of where you go in the world. Don’t get me wrong I would love to do an MSG or a Vegas fight, and if Ben wants to set that up I’m all in, but fighting at home means all your family can be there, there is nothing like being supported by your own.”

Jonas could have stayed in the Matchroom bubble, but when Boxxer and Ben Shalom offered her a better long-term deal, Jonas gambled. And less than a year on, it has more than paid off:

“Everything Ben said to me when we first met he has done. I just feel that I am valued and when people say they will do something they do it. And I feel like I am at the A-side over here.”

With all the political woes now behind her, there is a calmness about the Liverpool fighter now. I have interviewed Jonas many times, and there has been at times anger that has been hard to conceal. Before the Boxxer switch, there were difficult times, frustrated by many things in a sport that is addictive but brutal inside and outside the ring. But there has been a change in the past 9 months or so, especially since her world title-winning moment in Manchester earlier this year:

“I am just a lot more content now. Now that I have won a world title it is not as stressful now. I can just go and train and enjoy it more now. Everything else I achieve now is a bonus.”

Boxing is still very much part of her life, but it isn’t her life. A family that never seems to end, Jonas joked she has 75 cousins, at least I think she was joking, and spending time with her extended family is where she is at her happiest:

“My happy place is when I am with everyone, family, and friends wherever that may be. Mainly with the kids, I am the biggest kid of them all. So yeah, my happy place is with my family and my friends who are my family. I like being with everyone and enjoying things with everyone. It’s only like normal stuff, but I don’t always get the chance to do it.”

Jonas returns to action on September 3rd.