The scorecards read 98-93, 98-92 and 100-90, all for Lauren Price. The 100-90 card, from Gloria Martinez Rizzo, was a shutout, and The Ring said it was hard to argue with it.
Price, a 30-year-old southpaw from Wales, beat Natasha Jonas over ten rounds at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 7 March 2025. She kept her WBA welterweight belt and took the WBC and IBF titles from Jonas. The Ring, whose own title Price also holds, called her performance punch-perfect.
Right hooks from the opening bell
Both women are southpaws and neither wasted time. In the first round Price landed a pair of big right hooks, and the Welsh fans in the hall roared. Jonas is ten years older and has faced Katie Taylor and Mikaela Mayer. She was under pressure again in the second, with chants of “Pricey” ringing round the building.
With 20 seconds left in that round, another hook staggered Jonas. Rounds three and four went the same way. Jonas had a decent fifth until the last 20 seconds, when two more lead hooks from Price nearly put her down.
Jonas did not fold. She smiled at the final bell, and the two embraced after a build-up The Ring described as thorny.
A night for women’s boxing
This was the first women’s fight to headline the Albert Hall. It came on the eve of International Women’s Day, and the promoter BOXXER ran an all-women’s, five-fight card, shown in the UK on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports+. Jane Couch MBE, one of British women’s boxing’s pioneers, carried Jonas’ IBF and WBC belts to the ring.
“Stepping out here tonight, what a venue, we made history,” Price said. She thanked Jonas, “a true legend”. Her plan had been angles, feints and speed. “That’s what won me the Olympics and that’s what will get me to the top as a pro.”
The Ring noted that Price won her Olympic gold at middleweight while Jonas fought as a lightweight in 2012, and that Price looked bigger and stronger in the ring.
What comes next
Price named her next target straight away. “100% I want the winner next, to go back to Wales, the winner of that in Cardiff,” she said. She meant the rematch between Mayer and Sandy Ryan, with Mayer defending her new WBO title in Las Vegas on 29 March. “I honestly believe I can become undisputed and follow in the footsteps of Katie Taylor.”
Sources
- Lauren Price Earns Dominant Decision vs. Natasha Jonas, Unifies Welterweight World Titles | The Ring
- Lauren Price Crowned WBC World Champion on Historic Night – World Boxing Council
