Natasha Jonas: “I never really wanted to stay at 154, but the opportunities kept presenting themselves. But it now makes sense for me to go back down in weight.”

Natasha Jonas: “I never really wanted to stay at 154, but the opportunities kept presenting themselves. But it now makes sense for me to go back down in weight.”

It has been an extended break for Natasha Jonas. An active 2022 brought three world titles, and the Ring Magazine belt at super-welterweight has been replaced in the early months of 2023 by frustration and inactivity. Jonas will finally make her ring return on the 1st July at the Manchester Arena, and in many ways, it will be a new beginning. A new date. A new weight. Jonas will fight the Canadian Kandi Wyatt for the vacant IBF welterweight title in a fight that, if Jonas emerges with yet another world title to add to her ever-increasing collection of alphabet baubles, it will open many more doors for her for the remainder of the year.

The stay at 154 was always intended to be a short one, although, in reality, it has been extended somewhat by unification fights opening up for her with the likes of Patricia Berghult and Marie-Eve Dicaire. But with the potential fight with Claressa Shields failing to get over the line and Jonas showing zero interest in renewing acquaintances with previous opponent and domestic rival 154 belt-holder Terri Harper, Jonas has decided to drop down a weight in an attempt to win a world title in a second weight division. Over Zoom, Jonas told me the decision to test her skills in new waters has been made at the right time in her career:

“I never really wanted to stay at 154, but the opportunities kept presenting themselves. But it now makes sense for me to go back down in weight.”

In the way boxing seems to work, often in mysterious head-shaking ways, Jonas is no longer the IBF champion at super-welterweight as a result of trying for another world title at another weight in that governing body. A fact that was surprising to the fighter:

“That must be what they have agreed. I didn’t necessarily agree to vacate the IBF title, I thought I had ten days to decide if I won the 147 belt, but if that’s not the case then I don’t mind vacating the belt because obviously, I want to go down and challenge for other belts.”

While Fightpost has been of the understanding of the Jonas/Wyatt fight for several weeks, attempts have also been made for Jonas to fight the American Jessica McCaskill, but despite those talks ending with no reward, there is no bitterness from the Liverpool fighter:

“We’ve tried a few times to make the Jessica McCaskill fight. But Jessica has chosen the option that is best for her, so I get it. We were trying to make that fight, but that is just the way it is.”

With potentially only a handful of fights left in the boxing career of Jonas, the still unified super-welterweight champion of the world is keeping her options open. While further defences of her remaining 154 belts remain an option, FightPost understands the future of Jonas lies outside of that division with potential and viable opponents already being drawn up at 140 and 147:

“I think the Claressa fight has gone now, but I have seen a few people calling me out at 154, so I am keeping my options open,” Jonas says. “Myself and Boxxer have come up with a plan, so after this fight, we’ll see what happens. Every fighter is a viable option, but it all depends on what makes sense to me. Everyone will chip in and have an opinion, but at the end of the day, I am doing what is best for me.”

Jonas has stuck to her principles in the past, and we have seen evidence of that in recent times including rejecting an offer to fight Shields that she didn’t deem worthy and rejecting all advances to fight Harper again. The chance to fight Shields may now be slim at best, but Jonas has repeated many times that she will never fight Harper again regardless of what money is offered to her. But there are no regrets for ‘Miss GB’ it seems:

“I wouldn’t say I regret anything because it leads you to where you are going. So no, I don’t regret anything. I am stubbornly moral sometimes. It doesn’t always work in my favour, but I can sleep at night knowing I have stayed true to myself, and that means more to me than any amount of money or what other people say or think.”

We are now in the closing stages of the magnificent career of Natasha Jonas. The fight with Wyatt will hopefully be a continuation of the Indian Summer end to that career. The likes of Chantelle Cameron, Mikaela Mayer, and others will no doubt see Jonas and that IBF belt at 147 as reason enough to be tempted to share a ring with Jonas. But Jonas has been here before. She can’t look past what is next. It is Wyatt early next month, and with a victory, there could be the fights she deserves to see out her career in style. Accusations of avoidance aimed at Jonas are just absurd. The Shields fight was desperately close to being made, and it was a fight Jonas badly wanted and she lost other opportunities as a result of her single-minded quest for Shields. But if she beats Wyatt in Manchester, the big fights she craves will once again be on her horizon.

Photo Credit: Lawrence Lustig/Boxxer