Natasha Jonas: Collision Course

Natasha Jonas: Collision Course

A year that started on an incredible high. A fight of the year contender with Mikaela Mayer in her hometown in January. But a long period of frustration followed that incredibly hard-earned win over Mayer in Liverpool in defence of her IBF world welterweight title.

Jonas and Mayer tried valiantly to get a rematch over the line. Zoom calls and messages were exchanged. Two fighters that wanted the same thing. Everything seemed agreed. Everything seemed in place. Money wasn’t an issue. Embargoed interviews were done. But when they couldn’t secure a date, they reluctantly went their separate ways. In many ways, a missed opportunity.

With Jonas now out of the equation, Mayer quickly found a willing dance partner. Top Rank splashed the cash. Sandy Ryan came to New York in September to defend her WBO bauble. She left an ex-champion. There was controversy before the fight. But there wasn’t any inside the ring. Mayer got a thoroughly deserved decision over Ryan. The American now awaits what comes next. Mayer now has leverage. She took that from Sandy Ryan as well.

What Mikaela Mayer found, Natasha Jonas couldn’t. A deal with Ivana Habazin, the WBC welterweight champion has long been in place. But they couldn’t find a suitable date. Recent history was seemingly about to repeat itself. Potential options came and went without reward. The finer details of what would follow the Habazin fight also played a part in the delay of an official announcement. The frustration and more continued. But finally, Jonas got what she had been waiting for.

The fight with Habazin finally got over the line. Jonas and Habazin will defend their respective baubles in Liverpool on December 14th. With more than one eye on what will indeed come next, Lauren Price will make the first defence of her WBA title against the unbeaten Colombian Bexcy Mateus. If Jonas and Price both emerge unscathed, the two will further unify the welterweight ranks early next year. Mikaela Mayer will surely follow soon after. Although in boxing, the simple and the obvious is historically difficult to get done. With many moving parts in a sport that doesn’t seem to stop, those parts often move in another direction.

But before Jonas thinks of what could be next, she will have to concentrate on the here and now. ‘Miss GB’ will enter the unification showdown next month as the betting favourite, but the Croatian should not be overlooked. Habazin gave Terri Harper a decent enough test in 2023 in a losing effort at super-welterweight. Harper retained her WBA 154-pound world title, but she was pushed in the early stages until Habazin faded down the stretch. Habazin, in training for another fight, came in at a week’s notice, without any hard sparring behind her, she told me that she couldn’t feel her legs in the second half of the fight. With a full training camp behind her, that fight might have turned out a lot differently. The Croatian hasn’t lost since, including a win in April against Hungary’s Kinga Magyar, which earned her the WBC welterweight title.

With only one fight in 2023 and just the solitary fight with Mayer in January, Jonas has lost time in her career when time is so crucial to her. At 40, Jonas wanted 2024 to be her final year in the sport. But the recent inactivity will leave Jonas looking at having to continue her boxing life into another calendar year. Despite achieving plenty, Jonas wants more. But if she loses to Habazin, Jonas knows that there will be no more. Her career will be over. She is highly unlikely to repeat past mistakes. Jonas can’t afford to look ahead. She did that once before, and Viviane Obenauf took advantage when a fight with Katie Taylor was next.

The end is insight for Natasha Jonas. After achieving so much, everything else she now achieves will be a bonus. Already a two-weight world champion, it’s difficult to envisage what else is left for her to achieve. Undisputed? A world title in a third weight division? Natasha Jonas always seems to find a new challenge. The Hall of Fame is surely in her future. But the hunger remains. If it wasn’t, she would have walked away long before now. Few would have blamed her if she had waved goodbye to a sport that has severely tested her resilience and perseverance.

After losing so much time of late, time that can’t be made up, you sense that Jonas will want to send a little reminder that she still has a little more to give. And achieve.

Photo Credit: Boxxer