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Nick Parkinson
Rival world welterweight champions Natasha Jonas and Lauren Price are being lined up to potentially face each other early next year, so long as they both win their fights on Dec. 14.
IBF welterweight champion Jonas faces WBC champion Ivana Habazin in a world title unification fight in her home city at the Exhibition Centre, Liverpool, England.
On the same bill, Price defends her WBA belt against Bexcy Mateus of Colombia, after winning her first world title fight against former undisputed world champion Jessica McCaskill in May.
Price (7-0, 1 KO), 30, from Ystrad Mynach in Wales, who won an Olympic gold medal three years ago faces a dangerous challenger in Mateus (7-0, 6 KOs) but there are already plans for her to face Jonas in an all-British showdown with three out of the four world titles on the line.
Price said: “I have full respect for Mateus and will give it my all, because I know what’s ahead. I want to prove I’m the best in the division and I won’t let anything, or anyone stand in my way of becoming undisputed.”
Jonas (15-2-1, 9 KOs), 40, who turned professional in 2017 after competing as an amateur at the 2012 Olympics and giving birth to a daughter in 2015, faces Habazin after recording the best win of her career, a split points triumph over American Mikaela Mayer in January.
Jonas will be attempting to unify the belts at welterweight, just like she did at junior middleweight. Habazin (23-6, 7 KOs), 35, from Zagreb in Croatia, will be making a first defence of the WBC title and has fought some of the best names in women’s boxing, including defeats to Terri Harper, Cecilia Brækhus and Claressa Shields.
BOXXER promoter Ben Shalom said: “If Natasha and Lauren both win on December 14, it will set the stage for a massive Battle of Britain world title unification match up next year.”