What’s Next For Natasha Jonas?

What’s Next For Natasha Jonas?

Despite winning a world title in a second-weight division, 2023 was still somewhat of a disappointment for Natasha Jonas. In simple terms, ‘Miss GB’ wanted more.

It was a year that followed a quite remarkable twelve months for Jonas. The long wait for a world title ended in 2022. The Liverpool fighter moved up through the weight divisions to win three world titles at super-welterweight and the Ring Magazine belt for good measure. She was the first female fighter to win the long-standing and extremely prestigious British Boxing Board of Control Fighter of the Year award. Another slice of history for a fighter who just keeps on breaking records. We now forget that Jonas was considered all washed up before her fight with Terri Harper in 2020.

Jonas seemed perfectly set to build on a year that left her at peace with her career. But it didn’t quite happen for her. The win over Kandi Wyatt that earned her the IBF world welterweight title was her only outing in 2023. Jonas deserved more. She most certainly wanted more. A missed opportunity that could and should have added even more to her already incredible resume. Boxing sometimes just leaves you shaking your head.

A possible fight with Claressa Shields was lost when it seemed so close. Trust me, it was. Jonas was painted as the villain. She wasn’t, by the way. But Jonas is no stranger to a narrative that doesn’t quite fit reality. Crazy financial demands were not the reason that the fight didn’t happen.

But 2024 started so brightly. A big hometown headline fight with the talented former unified super-featherweight world champion American Mikaela Mayer in defence of her IBF bauble was an early Fight of the Contender contender. A fight for the ages. It had everything. Blood, guts, drama, and, of course, a little dose of the now obligatory scoring controversy. The dispute over who won masked what a truly great fight it truly was. Two special fighters who couldn’t have given any more.

But scoring issues aside, Jonas again seemed set for one final epic run in what is almost certainly her last year in a sport that she has graced so magnificently. But Jonas has again been left frustrated as nearly two months on from her career-best victory over Mayer, Jonas is still waiting for news of her next fight.

“For me, it has to be Katie Taylor, Jessica McCaskill, or Mayer,” Jonas said of who she wanted next just a few days after her win in Liverpool. But her hopes of a quick return to the ring appear to have been dashed. Jonas wants to fight again in May, but there is seemingly nothing even remotely on the horizon for the former Olympian. The question is, why?

Katie Taylor seems set to make a lukewarm defence of her undisputed super-lightweight titles in May. Chantelle Cameron, the obvious opponent for Taylor, seems to have missed out, at least for now, on the trilogy fight. But any lingering hopes that Jonas had for her rematch appear to also have ended. That fight wasn’t beyond the realms of possibility despite what some might tell you.

Jessica McCaskill was also more than in consideration, at least by the Jonas inner circle. It has always been a fight Jonas has wanted. Previous attempts to make the fight ended in failure, but she had high hopes that this time the fight would be hers.

But McCaskill will instead defend her remaining world welterweight titles against another Boxxer fighter in Lauren Price. Make no mistake, Jonas has a story to tell about that. But politics and internal wrangling aside, Jonas has missed out on another possible opponent.

Ben Shalom told me a few weeks ago that he was planning something ‘big’ for Jonas in September. The obvious not so hidden meaning in those words is for Jonas to fight the winner of the McCaskill/Price fight. Shalom obviously hopes that fighter will be Lauren Price, and a big in-house unification fight can then get made.

But Jonas wants to fight before September, and at 39, and with her apparent final year in the sport already slowly ebbing away, you can understand why Jonas wants a quicker return than September. Two more fights this year is the minimum Jonas wants out of 2024.

The Mayer rematch seems remote at best, at least in the UK, despite the American desperately wanting a second fight with Jonas. But could the Mayer camp make an offer for Jonas to have the fight in America? Would that eradicate any outstanding issues to make the rematch?

But Jonas or not, Mayer won’t hang around. She is already making plans elsewhere. Mayer told FightPost last month that her preference is fighting Jonas again, but she is also targeting the winner of next week’s WBO world title showdown in Sheffield between Sandy Ryan and Terri Harper. If Boxxer wants to make the rematch, they need to move quickly. But do they. Jonas isn’t the problem. The Liverpool fighter has already said if Taylor or McCaskill are not available, then she would fight Mayer again. FightPost is of the understanding that is still the case.

A possible fight with the Croatian Ivana Habazin for the now-vacant WBC welterweight title seems highly unlikely. Habazin intends to fight for that title in April. At the time of writing, that won’t be against Jonas. Habazin and her team already had a ready-made replacement for McCaskill when it seemed likely that the American wouldn’t fight her next month and was more than likely to go with the Lauren Price fight instead, therefore forfeiting her WBC title in the process. Habazin was the mandatory challenger for that title.

Why wasn’t Habazin thrown in the mix for either Price or Jonas?

It does seem strange that both Boxxer fighters were not accommodated in the negotiations that saw the McCaskill/Habazin match-up assigned to dust. Especially when the obvious intention is to match Jonas with the winner of McCaskill/Price. Why not have Jonas on the Cardiff show in May in a world title double-header to help promote what may or not come in September?

Jonas badly wanted the McCaskill fight. From comments online, the McCaskill camp initially wanted that fight also. But whatever combination was used, Habazin should have been somewhere in the mix so that either Price or Jonas fought her with the vacant WBC title on the line.

So where does that leave Jonas?

Will Jonas struggle to be slotted in the Boxxer schedule before September?

Are there budgeting restrictions that also will play against what Jonas wants?

Will Jonas even have to look further afield if there is nothing available closer to home to get something that satisfies?

But you would think that whatever the issues really are, Jonas has earned the right to be accommodated and be treated as more of a priority.

If the aim is only the big fights for Jonas, and with only possibly two fights left, then it most definitely should be that way, you think there are only two live options for Jonas.

The Mikaela Mayer rematch is seemingly there for the taking if movement is made fast enough. It does seem baffling with Boxxer having so few immediate headline fights that they wouldn’t be in a greater urgency to tie a second fight down. From a promotional and broadcast point of view, it seems like a no-brainer to get the return fight signed, sealed and delivered as quickly as possible. Why wouldn’t you want to run back a Fight of the Year contender? Even more so if there is a strong possibility Mayer goes off to fight Ryan or Harper next on DAZN and then subsequently be tied down in rematch clauses and further options. It might easily be a case of now or never for that second fight.

But could Chantelle Cameron be an option?

Cameron seems unlikely to get her third fight with Katie Taylor in the immediate future, and if indeed Mayer goes elsewhere rather than sit and wait for a call that might never come, then Cameron could become a more than viable alternative for Jonas.

Both have expressed a desire to fight each other despite them being friends. Jonas gets another major high-profile fight. Cameron gets an opportunity to win a world title at a second weight. Both you feel would welcome a fight, and a May date would seem to suit both, especially as their preferred fights seem to have fallen by the wayside. The obvious promotional difficulties aside, it does seem, for many reasons, like a fight that fits all parties. It might be unlikely, but where there is a will, there is usually a way.

But regardless of who the opponent could be or won’t be, Jonas shouldn’t be in this position at this stage of her career. In a position of limbo and possibly having to sit around until September.

Mikaela Mayer talked about needing to beat Jonas to regain some form of element of leverage for her career. But it seems that Jonas is the fighter, despite beating Mayer, who is the one who seemingly lacks leverage.

But Jonas has been here before. When the road ahead seems blocked, she tends to find a way through. It looks like a case of that she will have to do so again.

Photo Credit: Lawrence Lustig/Boxxer