Natasha Jonas: “The pressure of having to prove to other people that I am world-level is now off. I can just start enjoying my boxing again. It’s now, just for me.”

Natasha Jonas: “The pressure of having to prove to other people that I am world-level is now off. I can just start enjoying my boxing again. It’s now, just for me.”

It seems almost surreal how the women’s side of boxing has grown over the last few years. It’s been a long hard road for that acceptance. Often viewed as a novelty sideshow in the early days, a curiosity with little mainstream interest. But things have thankfully changed. Not everything in boxing is broken beyond repair. With all the apparent sleaze and corruption that often dominate a sport that is bafflingly described as noble, and with all the smoke and mirrors that came with recently failed drug tests, the Boxxer promoted all-female card last month was something the sport badly needed. A night that more than delivered on the hype. Headlined by the show-stealing Claressa Shields, who got her brand of redemption and revenge against an incredibly brave Savannah Marshall, it was a night and a fight that everyone hoped for.

The unified world super-welterweight champion Natasha Jonas was in her glad rags at ringside commentating for Sky Sports on a night that will live long in the memory. Over Zoom, Jonas told me the night exceeded all expectations:

“Sometimes there is a great expectation for a fight, and sometimes it doesn’t live up to it. But this did and more, both fights as well. That was my biggest fear leading up to it, we see it all the time. Spence vs Crawford has that written all over it. We had it with Mayweather and Pacquiao. We anticipated it so much and when it did happen it wasn’t the fight we all thought it would be. But Claressa and Savannah more than lived up to the hype.”

There was a different feel and vibe inside the O2 Arena in London. Sold out, no sign of trouble. It just felt different, a little slice of history. “Everyone was there to be part of something special,” Jonas says. Special was exactly what it was.

Jonas herself has had a meteoric last 12 months or so. Almost a year to the day since ‘Miss GB’ signed her career and life-changing deal with Sky and Boxxer, Jonas can look back with much satisfaction. Unhappy, and frustrated with how her career was going. Make no mistake, there have been many dark times over the last few years. Jonas has suffered more than most. A fighter on the outside looking in, a victim of the politics of the sport. One day, she will tell all, but for now, Jonas has world titles and options. And plenty of them:

“When you are living in it, it is hard to look back. But what a difference a year makes. People were saying you made the wrong decision. Eddie has got all the champions from 130 to 147, what are you going to do. They had a point, and they still do because I haven’t boxed anybody in those divisions yet. But now I am a unified champion, and I have got Terri Harper chasing me now. I’ve got Claressa Shields saying she wants to fight me. I didn’t have those options 12 months ago. A year ago there wasn’t a chance in hell of Terri fighting me.”

Trust me, the dark times were exactly that. That is no false narrative in the Natasha Jonas story. A long tearful drive home from Cardiff after Viviane Obenauf shocked and stopped her in 2018, was the low point. The lowest of the low she once told me. Within touching distance of Katie Taylor, the timing couldn’t have been any worse. When Obenauf stopped her, her career looked dead in the water. But Jonas took her time and rebuilt herself mentally and physically. Two attempts at winning a world title ended without Jonas realising her dream. But Jonas still remembers what she went through before the good times came calling:

“When I go to a school and give them talks it’s easy to tell the kids I am a world champion, an Olympian, or that I’ve done this and done that. But people can’t relate to you always winning, but that is what the fans only see, they only see the good times. They don’t always get to see the bad times. It’s only the pure hardcore ones that stick with you through the good and the bad. To the average boxing fan, once you have lost they just say you were crap. We got beat, we are crap. When people lose I am on it, especially when they believe they have won or got knocked out. I have messaged Terri when she got stopped, I have messaged Mikaela Mayer, Amanda Serrano and others. I can remember being so alone and not having anybody, it’s just a really horrible place and I never want anyone to feel like that.”

For so long Jonas craved a world title. Despite the near misses against Terri Harper in 2020 and again the following year against Katie Taylor, even Jonas must have thought her day would never come. But it did. And now she has two. And on the hunt for more.

Jonas 38, heads to Manchester next Saturday night, still the hunter, looking to add a few more belts to her ever-expanding collection. Marie-Eve Dicaire defends her IBF super-welterweight title against the Liverpool fighter and will look to add the WBC and WBO titles that Jonas currently holds. It might not be a fight for everything, but it isn’t far off. For the winner, only one solitary piece of the undisputed puzzle will be missing. Following her win over Chris Namus in February and her homecoming unification victory over Patricia Berghult in September Jonas has wiped away all those years of frustration and disappointment. The success isn’t lost on Jonas:

“It’s like how many chapters is this book going to have. How much better will this story get. I do see myself calling it a day towards the end of next year. If the fights go as well as I want them to, there will not be much more to achieve. But at the same time until my body and mind says I can’t do it anymore, or the hunger isn’t there then I will keep going. I still know there is a lot more to give from me. The pressure of having to prove to other people that I am world-level is now off. I can just start enjoying my boxing again. It’s now, just for me.”

Having jumped up through multiple weight divisions, Jonas is now settled at the weight. Growing into her new home, but not bulking up to the detriment of her natural assets inside a boxing ring. But Dicaire is probably the true test. More a natural super-welterweight than either Namus or Berghult, Jonas knows she will face different problems to overcome in Manchester:

“With Dicaire, I think her physicality is different. Namus was 148, and Berghult was 149, so both were quite well under. Dicaire weighs in at around 153, but I see her coming into the ring at about 160. I feel stronger at the weight now, I don’t need to be 154, I know that wouldn’t be helpful to me. Around 148 is my optimum weight, I can do 10 rounds comfortably. I can still move. I can do everything I am supposed to.”

It’s no secret Claressa Shields has mentioned the name of Jonas as a possible opponent when Shields returns from her MMA commitments towards the end of next year. Old rival Harper wants to renew hostilities with Jonas. But there are other options of interest to Jonas. As she says herself, what a difference a year makes. But the future will be lost if Jonas stumbles against Dicaire, a mistake Jonas wants to avoid. Her concentration and focus is fixed on the present:

“I can’t let my mind wander, I just need to focus on Dicaire. Even if everything goes the way I want, I am not going to think about what’s next. I am just going to go away with the baby and my little niece and enjoy not having to think. I have literally had just six weeks off since January last year.”

For a fighter with a career of many ups and downs, maybe surprisingly to some, Jonas has no regrets. A firm believer of everything happens for a reason, the setbacks are all part of the story and have made her what she is today:

“I have never regretted anything in my life. Don’t get me wrong there are things that I wish hadn’t played out the way they did. But I am here now. It’s made me who I am. I am happy now.”

It’s easy to forget where Jonas was a year ago. And until the story is written in her own words, very few will know what she has been through. But life is different now for Jonas. And she is different also. Happy within herself and relaxed about the future, Jonas with her limited time left in the sport, still wants more. Dicaire is no pushover, only Shields has beaten her in nineteen fights, and the Canadian believes her natural size will be her route to victory. Jonas is under no illusions about the size of the task ahead.

But Jonas is on a roll, an Indian Summer of a career if ever there was one, and she still thinks she is getting better. That could prove pivotal as to who leaves Manchester a little closer to undisputed. But I’m not convinced having a full set of baubles at super-welterweight is her primary motivation for the remainder of her career. Jonas is likely to go elsewhere if the opportunity presents itself. And that is the big difference from where she once was. Another chapter will be written in Manchester. There is every chance it won’t be the last.