The winner at the Royal Albert Hall last night was Lauren Price with a near shutout victory over Natasha Jonas but the triumphant queen was women’s boxing.
The contests – all five going the distance – delivered, the audience was different and entertained, and it will live long in the memory on the eve of International Women’s Day.
Price is now installed in my view as among the greatest female boxers Britain has produced in the modern times, matching the groundbreakers in Jane Couch “The Fleetwood Assassin” and Barbara Buttrick “The Might Atom”, who were so far ahead of their time. Couch, who had to share hotel rooms, and travel the world to fight, had an even bigger battle with the British Boxing Board, taking them to the High Court to procure a professional boxing licence.
Modern female boxers would feel deeply insulted by what Couch went through. I covered her British debut after her high High Court case was won. It was at Caesar’s nightclub – not the one in Las Vegas, but in Streatham, South London – with a low ceiling with only a few feet above the boxer’s heads. Yorkshire lass Buttrick, standing 4ft 11ins tall, fought on the carnival circuit, and mostly in America. She had to. She even fought exhibition bouts against men. I met her at the 2012 Olympics when she was 82, and she had an extraordinary energy about her.
Tiny and glowing. Buttrick was there to celebrate the inauguration of women into the Olympic Games. Jonas fought there, and since then, almost 13 years ago, women’s boxing has grown into a spectacle, and notably, grew exponentially from the pandemic lockdown onwards.
Last night’s event, in the majestic acoustic setting of one of the most vaunted venues in London, or indeed anywhere in the world, Price took the throne and the baton for women’s boxing, one which Jonas has held the torch for in the wake of Couch and Buttrick.
“Miss GB”, as trainer Joe Gallagher has aptly called Jonas, and in Price, the sport here has a veritable champion to grow the sport. There were two stars of the future on the card, moreover, with Caroline Dubois, the world lightweight champion, and Francesca Hennessy, daughter of longstanding promoter Mick Hennessy, who discovered and promoted world champions Carl Froch and Tyson Fury. Mark my words, we will hear much about Dubois, the younger sister of world heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois, and Hennessy, in the coming months and years.
Both have talent, personality, verve and vigour, in abundance. They already have the great qualities to make them formidable role models and stand-outs in the women’s movement in sport. I wouldn’t mind seeing Price and Dubois matched, by the way, something promoter Ben Shalom admitted to me last night that he has considered.
Good timing too, this all women card, given that the trilogy fight between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano was announced 48 hours ago, pitching the two future Hall of Famers in another contest after their two brutal battles. There is little doubt that the Irish star and the Puerto Rican heroine are two of the greatest female fighters of all time. Their third rumble, with Taylor 2-0 in the series, will take place on another all-women card on July 11 – again on Netflix after they garnered 65 million viewers last time just before Jake Paul fought Mike Tyson at Dallas Cowboys Stadium, Texas – back at New York’s Madison Square Garden, where they made history three years ago in a contest watched by over a million viewers.
But back to our British raging belles last night. It brought together two generations in the sport: Jonas, who made history as one of the first female boxing competitors to compete at the inaugural event at the London 2012 Olympics. Witnessing Jonas fighting Katie Taylor in a semi-final of a torrent of punches, was breathtaking. The noise, by the packed audience at the EXCEL Arena, reached the decibels of a jumbo jet taking off. Jonas, now 40, has become a role model as boxer, spokesperson, boxing analyst on multiple channels, and mother. Jonas has also been a three-weight world champion.
In Price, Jonas faced a Welsh multi-sport standout who won the Olympic gold in the delayed Tokyo Olympics, and switched to the sport as a world champion in kickboxing, who has also represented her country at Association Football, but whose inspiration in part has come from the lightning rod that Jonas has become over the last 15 years.
I favoured Price, and was on record indeed, that the Welsh fighter would win last night. Yet Jonas refused to buckle, admitting afterwards however that Price’s speed, youth and power were tough to combat and counter. Three of the world welterweight titles were on the line, and an undisputed title is out there potentially in the next match-up, with the American Michaela Mayer and Britain’s Sandy Ryan re-matching for the last world title belt out there in the 10st 7lbs (welterweight) division.
I was there early yesterday, and the Albert Hall audience seemed to be made up of many women enjoying the spectacle. The all-women card was not the first ever – BOXXER and its CEO Shalom put on an all-female card two years ago at the O2 Arena that was equally well-attended – and became a thrilling night, but this was special last night. The setting, the majesty and verve of the powerful Price, agile and dangerous, now leading the charge into a new phase for women’s boxing.
This article first appeared in The Telegraph on March 8