-
Nick Parkinson
Natasha Jonas hoped to be enjoying retirement by now, but instead she goes into a world title unification fight on Saturday with unfinished business.
Jonas delivered a career-best performance against Mikaela Mayer in January and declared afterwards that 2024 ‘”is probably my last year in boxing.”
However, the 40-year-old mum-of-one has not fought since earning a split decision over Mayer, leading Jonas to revise her plans and continue into 2025.
IBF welterweight champion Jonas (15-2-1, 9 KOs) first faces WBC champion Ivana Habazin in a world title unification fight in her home city at the Exhibition Centre, Liverpool, England.
Providing Jonas defeats Habazin (23-6, 7 KOs), 35, from Zagreb, Croatia, she will progress to face British rival Lauren Price in another title unification fight.
Olympic gold medalist Price (7-0, 1 KO), 30, from Ystrad Mynach in Wales, makes a first defence of her WBA belt against Bexcy Mateus (7-0, 6 KOs), of Colombia, after winning her first world title fight against former undisputed world champion Jessica McCaskill in May.
“If I got the fights I wanted last year I would be retired by now,” Jonas told ESPN.
“When you have performances like I did against Mayer, you have to build on them. I’m too old to be inactive and an inactive Natasha is a dangerous one.
“Knowing I could be fighting Lauren down the line is a distraction and I hate it when people say this is the collision course, you’re going to be fighting her after this one, and it’s a bit disrespectful on Ivana.
“I’m certainly not looking past her. We have seen it before in boxing where plans go out the window. The perfect example is Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. They were supposed to fight but look what happened. Something always happen to mess plans up and I don’t want to be the one to slip up.
“I’m two fights or three fights away from retirement, I want to go out on a high and I want to go out on my own terms. I don’t want to have too many fights. I still feel that performances like the one versus Mikaela Mayer show I have got it in me still, I have the boxing IQ and drive to beat top opponents.”
If the opportunity arises, Jonas would accept a rematch with undisputed junior welterweight champion Katie Taylor (24-1, 6 KOs), 38, who is considering her next move after winning her rematch with Amanda Serrano in front of a huge audience on Netflix last month.
Taylor, 38, from Bray in Ireland but based in Connecticut, won a close fight on points against Jonas in May 2021 but is being linked with a trilogy fight against Serrano, whose camp is pushing for it to happen in New York.
Taylor’s team is exploring the potential of a fight at the 70,000-seat Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland, in spring 2025. Jonas would also be open to a rematch with American Mayer (20-2, 5 KOs), 34, who has since beat Sandy Ryan for the WBO world welterweight title.
“I’ve always said that Katie is the fight I wanted,” Jonas, who turned professional in 2017 after competing as an amateur at the 2012 Olympics and giving birth to a daughter in 2015, told ESPN.
“The two biggest fights out there for me are Katie Taylor and the Mikaela Mayer rematch, which is personal.
“I hope Katie chooses me next [rather than Serrano], but Katie is in a privileged position in that she can choose her opponents and we are all chasing her. If she wants a payday she will probably go for Amanda Serrano.”
Serrano (47-3-1, 31 KOs), 36, from Puerto Rico but based in New York, is pushing for Taylor to face her again over three-minute rounds instead of two-minutes. But Jonas would be surprised if Taylor agrees to the change, and said she believes it is the wrong time to extend the length of fights in women’s boxing.
“Katie would never agree to a three-minute round with Serrano because she has mastered the craft of a two-minute round so well,” Jonas told ESPN.
“She knows how to rob a round in the last seconds, she knows when to take a break, how to pace herself, she knows when to put it on your opponent. I don’t blame her because that’s what her style is, what works best for her.
“But a three-minute round would benefit me, I even train three-minute rounds and then come down to two-minute rounds closer to the fight. Every time there has been a big KO in women’s boxing people don’t like it. We need an independent report into the impact of going up to three-minute rounds on knockouts.
“Also, if we are doing three-minute rounds, are we going to get extra pay for doing so? And if we’re not, what’s the point of doing three-minute rounds?
“I don’t think it’s the right time, I think the two-minute rounds actually make it more exciting, one little flurry of punches can cost you the round.”
Habazin makes a first defence of the WBC belt and has lost to the likes of Terri Harper, Cecilia Brækhus and Claressa Shields. Jonas insists her opponent’s experience means she cannot afford to take her threat lightly.
“She’s been a pro a long time and has been in with some big names, so knows her way around title fights, and she doesn’t feel overawed,” Jonas said.
“But I think that everything that she has got, I have got better and I’m definitely not taking her lightly.”