Natasha Jonas vs. Kandi Wyatt: Big Fight Preview & Prediction

Natasha Jonas vs. Kandi Wyatt: Big Fight Preview & Prediction

A venue with a special place in her heart. The stage where all her previous heartbeat and disappointment were put to bed in February last year on that beyond-emotional night. The fight hotel is the same. The omens look good for Natasha Jonas on Saturday night at the Manchester Arena.

It seems only complacency can stop Jonas from getting past the tough Canadian Kandi Wyatt. The vacant IBF welterweight title is on the line. A two-weight world champion of the world could be hers, when just over a year ago, Jonas didn’t have any world titles to her name. A win over the tough and ready Wyatt will give Jonas her fourth world title and the gateway to possible undisputed next time out. But there are other options. With only a handful of fights left, Jonas will not be dictated to by others. She will choose the fights that make sense for her.

I wouldn’t totally rule out Jonas, if she wins on Saturday night, facing the winner of Jessica McCaskill and Sandy Ryan, but unless money talks loud enough, the Liverpool fighter and Boxxer will take another route, a far more likely fight, and then wait and see how the Chantelle Cameron and Katie Taylor rivalry plays out later this year. Jonas will then set her sights on the winner. There are moving parts and Jonas will need the results and the politics of her sport to fall her way. Having a world title will help her cause.

But we have a long way to go before Jonas enters 2024 for her final dance. One false move and Jonas will not get to her desired end game. What could lie ahead will be dead in the water if ‘Miss GB’ takes her eye off the prize in Manchester. But that seems unlikely. Jonas has tasted that bitter taste of regret previously.

Viviane Obenauf ruined a lot of plans in 2018. Jonas looked ahead. Katie Taylor lied in wait. Obenauf, now serving 16 years in prison for murdering her husband, upset all those plans. A long drive home from Wales was full of tears and fears her career was over. Jonas, having been through that, will not risk a repeat of her night of horror.

Wyatt (11-4) has three defeats in her last four fights and has failed three times before on the world stage. The Canadian is very much in the last chance saloon. It really is now or never. Wyatt will advance all night long. But she is slow, limited, and is there to be hit. Her defeat to McCaskill in 2021 was a New York stoppage. But she was outclassed. McCaskill, not the greatest of technicians, couldn’t miss Wyatt with her right hand. Jonas, even from her southpaw stance, will find success there also.

Jonas (13-2-1) has a frame that is better suited to welterweight. Her super-welterweight run was always one of convenience. In truth, 140 is probably her best weight. If everything goes to plan, that is where the Natasha Jonas story will go and end. Wyatt is the first step of that closing chapter.

The still unified world super-welterweight champion of the world looks to have far too much for her opponent on Saturday. Jonas is the fighter who can and will land the combinations, couple that with her hand and foot speed, and I see the uppercut of Jonas doing some real damage when Wyatt advances. Which she undoubtedly will.

It is difficult to find a way Wyatt can actually win. But Jonas still needs to be switched on from the opening seconds. Wyatt will know she might not get another chance and will enter the Manchester ring with ambition, maybe even desperation. She needs to be respected.

There is complacency and a slow start to avoid and equally as crucially, getting dragged into the kind of fight Wyatt would prefer. The Canadian will look to make the fight messy, dirty even, and not allow the Liverpool fighter the required space and time to utilise her superior skills. It is almost certainly her only route to victory. Kirstie Bavington will testify to this. Jonas is no slouch with her own work at close quarters, but she will surely want daylight to land her own accurate counters. Wyatt is physically strong and will look to deny Jonas any type of rhythm. If there is any complacency, which I seriously doubt there will be, it could get very hard for Jonas if she doesn’t start well.

But what McCaskill did, Jonas will surely match. If not better. Jonas is much better technically than McCaskill. And I see Jonas getting the job done inside the distance.

Wyatt has been stopped twice before, by McCaskill and by Christina Linardatou in 2019, and I see a similar ending to her latest world title challenge on Saturday night. Wyatt did make Linardatou work extremely hard for her victory. She forced her will and style on Linardatou in their world title fight four years ago. Linardatou took in great gulps of air at times and fought open-mouthed until Wyatt took one right hand too many in the 6th round which was the beginning of the end.

Jonas might have to work a little harder for her victory than the long odds against the upset may suggest, and I don’t see Wyatt falling early. But I do think Jonas will gradually wear down her opponent and eventually force the stoppage, probably somewhere in the middle rounds.

Photo Credit: Lawrence Lustig/Boxxer