By Mark Baldwin
NATASHA JONAS was perceived to be all washed up when Viviane Obenauf shocked and stopped her in 2018. Her career looked over. Pre-fight, the talk had been all about a fight with Katie Taylor. Post-fight, the talk was all about retirement.
“Miss GB” and her ever-present and incredibly loyal trainer, Joe Gallagher, drove home from Wales that weekend fearing it was all over. The drive was endless. So were the tears.
Jonas had returned to the sport looking for peace after injury curtailed her quite magnificent and historic amateur career. Turning pro, she wanted career satisfaction. She wanted more. “I want to win belts and I want to win championships,” Jonas, 39, told me at the time. “I want to be a champion.”
The shocking and unexpected loss to Obenauf had Jonas thinking her dreams would be left unfulfilled. Yet, of course, Jonas couldn’t walk away. It took time and plenty of it, but Jonas eventually found what she needed.
“It was really hard to get over it,” she said. “It wasn’t just the fact that I lost; that happens frequently in the amateurs. It was the manner of the defeat, getting stopped like that. It was a pride, ego thing. I was hurting. But that was what drove me to return.”
Retirement was a consideration. In truth, it looked the only call. How could Jonas seriously recover from that fourth-round stoppage loss to the unheralded Obenauf?
“I didn’t want to pack it in for the simple reason I hadn’t achieved what I wanted to,” she said, and indeed, rather than signal the end, defeat to Obenauf would represent a new beginning. After three routine wins to rebuild her shattered confidence, Jonas was now ready for redemption.
In 2020, Jonas was the perceived lamb to the slaughter when she challenged Terri Harper for her world super-featherweight titles. But the former Olympian defied the odds and doomsday predictions by giving Harper the fight of her young life, walking away with a hotly disputed draw. Many felt she deserved more, yet Jonas had proved her point and given her career life.
In 2021, Jonas then pushed Katie Taylor extremely hard behind closed doors in Manchester. Taylor retained her undisputed world lightweight titles by way of a wafer-thin points decision and Jonas, despite her efforts, was denied again. Her dreams of becoming a world champion appeared to have ended without reward.
But after that Jonas gambled. The Matchroom bubble was left behind and she signed with the new kid on the boxing block: Boxxer. In doing so, she sought fresh opportunities and one last chance on the world stage.
“I feel happy, I feel valued, I feel like the A-side, and I feel supported,” she said.
For many reasons Jonas knew the doors would probably be shut at her more natural weight. So when an opportunity one day arose at super-welterweight, Jonas took it. Her opponent, Chris Namus, was then blasted out in two sensational rounds in February 2020 in Manchester. It was billed as third time lucky. However, luck didn’t come into it.
The fight hotel in Manchester was full of joy and no little emotion in the early hours. Jonas, with post-fight media obligations finally out of the way, entered the hotel with her precious WBO bauble in hand and a warm and loud standing ovation greeted her. It was a special moment.
“It takes a weight off my shoulders. It’s a relief. I feel I can enjoy the boxing now,” she said. “At times I felt as though I was losing my sanity chasing world titles. I can just start enjoying my boxing again. It’s now just for me.
“It seemed so far away. I can remember thinking I was the female Andrew Selby. It never quite worked out for him, and I can remember thinking, Am I going to be that person?”
The year 2022 had started with a bang, but more was to follow. Soon Jonas had also unified the super-welterweight titles with wins over Patricia Bergholt and Marie-Eve Dicaire.
Remember, the Liverpool fighter started the year with no world titles to her name, yet she ended it with three. Sublime and unlikely, these achievements earned her the British Boxing Board of Control Fighter of the Year honour, becoming the first female to pick up the prestigious award.
But 2023, the year that followed, proved a frustrating 12 months for Jonas. A much-talked-about fight with Claressa Shields was lost on the negotiation table before Jonas then returned in July to claim the IBF welterweight title courtesy of an eighth-round stoppage victory over the Canadian Kandi Wyatt. The move back down in weight now sets Jonas up quite nicely for what lies ahead in 2024; a year that begins with an IBF welterweight title defence against Mikaela Mayer on January 20 and will almost certainly be her last in the sport.
“It’s a huge fight, and beating Mikaela Mayer would be a big scalp,” Jonas said. “With no disrespect to any opponents in the past, as far as pedigree goes, a win over Mayer would definitely be my biggest so far.”
Jonas has in her contract that all-important rematch clause, ready to be invoked if she falls short against Mayer; after what happened against Harper, Jonas will know the importance of the finer details of a fight contract. But the two-weight world champion will hope a victory first time around takes her to another big fight later this year.
“The next few fights are probably going to be my last few fights in boxing,” she said. “I want them to be big and I want to test myself; fight the best and leave a lasting legacy.”
For now, the importance of a hometown gig isn’t lost on Jonas, who will enter her fight with Mayer a slight betting favourite.
“I’ve only boxed in Liverpool a handful of times, so I want it to be a night to remember for all the right reasons. There is no place like home regardless of where you go in the world.”
Retirement is close and Jonas knows that. You sense as well that she won’t hang around when her time in the sport is over and that she is better equipped than most to deal with a life away from the spotlight.
“I’d like to think I will know when it’s time to retire,” she said. “I’ve told my mum and my cousin, the two people I am closest to, that they need to tell me as well. You always think you have still got it. But I would like to think I would know.”
Despite what looms, and despite all she has achieved, Jonas still has lingering ambitions. She wants more, much more, and knows a win over Mayer will bring her closer to her dream ending.
