Natasha Jonas: “I feel happy, I feel valued, I feel like the A-side. I feel supported.”

Natasha Jonas: “I feel happy, I feel valued, I feel like the A-side. I feel supported.”

In little less than a year everything has changed for Natasha Jonas. A scheduled fight in Liverpool last October was cruelly pulled as Jonas was just about to go into the press conference on the Thursday before the fight. It was a backstage tsunami of boxing politics that boiled over into a bitter parting of the ways. Words were said as the cameras rolled, unchallenged by most, Jonas painted as something she wasn’t. A one-sided and misleading hatchet job of a fighter who deserved better.

But Jonas knew there were better times ahead. And soon. Once the dust had settled, Jonas announced that she had signed with Boxxer. The ambitious relatively new boxing promotional company headed by Ben Shalom, had big plans, armed with the Sky platform and the money that came with it, Jonas was one of many new additions. But a crucial one.

Less than twelve months later, Jonas is now a unified world champion, and happy. Over Zoom, Jonas told me how much things had changed for her:

“Everything Ben said he would do for me he has done and more. He’s doing his part and I just have to do my part. I feel happy, I feel valued, I feel like the A-side. I feel supported, and I get on well with Ben, we have a good professional working relationship. I’ve never really had that before I used to have to speak through other people before. I’m just happy now and that is the most important thing. I am back to enjoying my boxing now I don’t think it is so political now.”

After one short-notice fight last year, Jonas went to Manchester in February for what could have been her final dance. Her third world title opportunity, defeat would have meant the end. Jonas knew there was no way back if Chris Namus had ended her long-time dream. Jonas smashed her way to that elusive and cherished world title. A career saved in many ways.

Jonas could have walked away with the WBO title safely secured, but she fought on for something bigger. On Saturday, she got what she was looking for. This time in her hometown of Liverpool, it was a far happier ending than what she experienced last October. Patricia Berghult came to England unbeaten and the WBC super-welterweight champion. She left with neither. Manchester was special, but for Jonas, home is where the heart is:

“It was better than Manchester because I knew everyone was there. I got a good reception from everyone. They have never done it before but they filmed me from the dressing room and not just from the stage. So as I am walking out I can hear everyone cheering because they could see me walking to the stage. So when I got to the stage everyone started roaring and I thought that was boss.”

Like most fighters, there is a switch that is flicked for Jonas come fight night. The calmness of her normal demeanor is replaced the second the gloves are laced and the lights dim. For Jonas that is the moment fight mode kicks in:

“I don’t want to say it’s an alter ego but that’s my stage and my time to perform. That’s where I am probably most comfortable. When I am talking to adults or the kids that is probably when I am most nervous, but in the ring, that’s what I know and where I am comfortable. I change to work mode. When I walk through the door the baby doesn’t want ‘Miss GB’ she wants her mum so I change and the same when I walk into the gym I change back into work mode you just change automatically.”

If Namus was quickly dispatched inside two rounds, Berghult was an entirely different proposition. The Swedish fighter didn’t let go of her unbeaten record or her title without a fight. From ringside I had it 99-91 for the Liverpool fighter. Jonas herself, had it a little closer:

“At the time I thought I could give her maybe three rounds. I remember going back to my corner and Joe saying you lost that one. But after round nine he said you are comfortably ahead but you can’t switch off stay on it, keep your concentration, and don’t get involved because she will come at you trying to win, so just counter her and move.”

Berghult was tough, several times it looked as though she would topple. Despite all hope looking gone, Berghult even rallied briefly in that fantastic 8th round, before Jonas came roaring back to retake control. ‘Miss GB’ knew beforehand the type of fight she was going to get. She wasn’t disappointed:

“I knew she was all those things. I knew she was smart, that she would move, and then trade for a little bit and then run. What we thought about her was pretty much right. But she was a lot tougher, I hit her with some absolute belter of shots and I thought please go down, please go down. But like I did with Terri I’d hit her with a good shot and when I went to go again I sort of let her grab hold of me where if I had left her and stayed on the back foot a bit more then she might have fell. And there were times when I hit her and I thought that’s me ahead and I sort of gave her that time off. So I could have been a little more aggressive but everyone is their worst critic aren’t they.”

There was a time not so long ago when Jonas couldn’t get a fight. High risk, low reward does that. But now with two belts around her waist, Jonas is now the hunted. Hannah Rankin the WBA/IBO champion defends her titles later this month against an old rival of Jonas, Terri Harper. Both have targeted Jonas since the weekend, as has Marie-Eve Dicaire the IBF champion. Jonas is very much in demand.

Two failed negotiations with Rankin and the past history with Harper might leave those two call-outs falling on deaf ears. They might have to fall in line. Dicaire would seem the preferred choice for her next fight:

“To be fair I think Terri has got a bit of a cheek. I saw her little tweet and I thought that was funny when I wanted the instant rematch Terri and her team was nowhere to be seen. And she hasn’t won anything yet. She might beat Hannah but she might not. I was trying to get the rematch with Terri for months and they just shut up. But with Dicaire, I thought she can sit and hold tight because she was the only one we didn’t approach, so that could be possible.”

The relationship between Jonas and her trainer Joe Gallagher is close, unbreakable even, and the fighter has always stated the importance of Gallagher. But while the fighter can always enjoy their moment, the trainer instantly looks to the next:

“I messaged Joe on Sunday and I said it’s mad because I am sitting here enjoying life and he’s just onto the next training camp. So Joe never stops he’s always onto the next one he can’t really enjoy it and lap it up for a bit.”

There is contentment now about Jonas. Happy with life and how her career has panned out in recent times after the previous frustration:

“I am proud of myself. It’s a nice place to be in and have them options. As you know there were a lot of people I wanted to fight and they just wouldn’t and I just wasn’t getting the fights I wanted or needed. And now I have got everyone asking me for fights which is just madness.”

Jonas has come a long way since her amateur career and a shocking loss early in her professional career that threatened to end everything before it reached a natural conclusion. But Jonas went away and rebuilt in many ways. She has every right to be proud of herself, but it will only be when the gloves are hung up that Jonas will be able to reflect on her many achievements:

“Ben and I laugh about it sometimes. But because you are living in the moment you don’t appreciate it. It probably won’t be until I retire that I will look back and reflect and think I went a long way.”

Jonas has a plan, it could be two, or three fights at the most. A further unification at super-welterweight looks almost guaranteed. Against who is the only doubt. But she still holds hope that she can drop back down to her more natural weight. Another meeting with Katie Taylor looks remote, but Jonas will be a more than interested spectator when Jessica McCaskill and Chantelle Cameron clash later this year. There are options. And plenty of them.

It’s been some journey for Jonas, especially in the last few years. But all the pain and suffering have now got the rewards. The titles give her the peace that she always craved. But that wry smile, says she wants more. It’s not enough. The career of Natasha Jonas is still unfinished business with a few more chapters to write yet.

Photo Credit: Lawrence Lustig/Boxxer