Natasha Jonas: “I would definitely fight Claressa at 147. She has put it out there, so let’s do it.”

Natasha Jonas: “I would definitely fight Claressa at 147. She has put it out there, so let’s do it.”

Natasha Jonas was on her way to a fight with Katie Taylor in 2018. Unbeaten in six fights, all she had to do was take her resume to 7-0 in Wales. Viviane Obenauf wasn’t expected to trouble Jonas too much, let alone beat her. It looked like a formality. Maybe Jonas felt that also. But Obenauf hadn’t read the script. It ended in four shocking rounds. Not only the fight. But the career of Jonas looked over also. The long drive back home to Liverpool was even longer in the beyond-emotional and depressing aftermath. A tearful journey back home to that fighting city. There looked to be no way back. But Jonas took her time and found what she needed again, but she couldn’t quite get over the line with Terri Harper and Taylor in world title fights in 2020 and 2021. A slow start cost her against Taylor. The judges denied her against Harper. The politics of her sport froze her out further. There were times, for different reasons, when retirement seemed the only call to make.

“I definitely felt like walking away before because it seemed so far away. I thought it was never going to happen, Jonas told me over Zoom just a few days removed from winning another world title. “But now it is about achieving a little bit more and getting the big opportunities. I want to be at peace with myself. Every fight I want is potentially for undisputed.”

The Manchester Arena has been kind to Jonas in recent times. That elusive precious world title was claimed there in February last year, and she closed out last year by making a return visit and winning another. Jonas started 2022 with no world titles to her name. She ended it with three. Her fighting year in 2023 started in Manchester, and another world title, this time at a second weight, was added to her ever-increasing collection. A move up to the super-welterweight division was a rewarding one, but now Jonas is moving back down to more natural waters.

The incredibly tough Canadian Kandi Wyatt was stopped in eight rounds, and Jonas won the vacant IBF welterweight title as a result of her one-sided victory over the multi-time world title challenger. It was virtually a punch-perfect performance from ‘Miss GB’ and from the early stages, the result wasn’t in doubt.

“After the first round, I knew I could hurt her,” Jonas said of the opening exchanges that left her on the brink of victory inside the first minute. “I was loading up a little bit, but Joe (Gallagher) kept saying don’t go in trying to knock her out because you will tire yourself out because she is used to taking heavy shots. Jessica McCaskill hit her with some absolute bombs, and she was still standing. So we were saying just break her down and get her out of there late on.”

At 39, Jonas seems to be getting better with age. The Liverpool fighter calls it fighting smarter, but even with four world titles to her name, she is still thinking of ways to improve:

“I feel like I am just smarter in the work that I do. I would love to see my punch stats because I think my landing rate is very high. My throwing rate is very low, but they land. I have always boxed that way, but I need to get out of the habit of thinking that it might not land and just throw with a bit more volume.”

The career Indian Summer will now move on to the final stages. It could be two more fights and done. Jonas had to vacate her IBF 154 bauble to fight Wyatt, but she still holds the WBC and WBO titles at super-welterweight. In the next few days, she has to decide what she wants to do at 154. Defend them or vacate them. Almost certainly, her business is already done at the higher weight. The fighting future of Jonas looks to be at the weights that are more suited to her frame. And there are plenty of options at 147 or even down at 140 where Chantelle Cameron currently holds all the belts.

The undisputed world middleweight champion Claressa Shields was in town last weekend in search of her next opponent. Could Jonas be that fighter? They could have fought each other already. But no deal could be reached to make the fight earlier this year, but could the fight be resurrected in the final months of this year. Shields, in fine vocal form as usual in Manchester, teased the possibility of her dropping down to welterweight to fight Jonas. Shields said it would take a lot of money to tempt her, and while it does seem unlikely for many reasons, Jonas is more than up for a fight with the American superstar:

“Claressa has suggested 147. But what makes me laugh is the inconvenience for her to go down to 147, she wants to be well paid for that. I get it because it makes it harder for her, and it gives me a benefit. But my answer to that is when she wanted me to stay at 154, which is probably a big benefit to her, but when I ask for more money to do that, she has a problem. It’s like only she can ask for more money. If the money side of it could get sorted, I would definitely fight Claressa at 147. She has put it out there, so let’s do it.”

Shields was somewhat dismissive of Jonas in her comments on Sky Sports following the Liverpool fighters’ eight-round victory over Wyatt. The American said she would jump all over Jonas and stop her in the later rounds. But Jonas sees it differently:

“Claressa is a great fighter, but who has she stopped. So all that talk is just nonsense. She can say what she wants, but when you are in there, it is a lot different because everyone thought that is what Terri Harper and Katie Taylor would do to me.”

Jessica McCaskill and Sandy Ryan will do battle for the remaining belts at welterweight later this year. The winner of that fight is on the radar of Jonas, but with the new IBF welterweight champion wanting another fight before the year ends, a fight with either McCaskill or Ryan is unlikely to be next. “They are all of interest to me, but I will have to wait, and I don’t really want to wait. The dates will be out of sync,” Jonas told FightPost, thinking that their schedules will not align in 2023.

The more likely fight is one with the recently crowned British welterweight champion Lauren Price. The Olympic champion was ringside in Manchester and expressed her interest in fighting Jonas later this year:

“I think Lauren is the easier fight to make. She was very respectful to me on Saturday night. I think potentially it could be her next.” Jonas said.

Jonas knows she has a fight to win first, be it against Price or someone else, but 2024 will likely bring the career of Natasha Jonas to a close. She wants a big fight to close that career out. Jonas has targeted Taylor or Cameron for that final fight. Some might say that politics will not allow Jonas her wish. But the Liverpool fan favourite is hopeful the possible farewell fight will be against either Cameron or Taylor. If Taylor hadn’t boldly called out Cameron when her rematch with Amanda Serrano fell by the wayside, Jonas and Cameron could already have shared a ring together. A fight between Jonas and Matchroom’s finest isn’t as unlikely as it may seem:

“I think Katie has a big say in who she fights. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have fought Chantelle. I don’t think they wanted her to fight Chantelle, so I think she has a lot more pull in who she fights. As for Chantelle, it is a fight she wants, and it is a fight I want. I am prepared to fight on DAZN if needed, and hopefully, the politics of boxing don’t stop those fights from happening.”

There are many moving parts before Jonas reaches that final point of her remarkable career. Results need to go her away. And maybe more crucially, the negotiations also. After recovering from that gut-wrenching defeat to Obenauf in 2018, Jonas has impressively turned her career around from the depths of despair. A big fight to close out the story is the least Jonas deserves. Don’t rule it out.

Photo Credit: Lawrence Lustig/Boxxer