Champions Clash: Natasha Jonas to fight Mikaela Mayer

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Two world champions are set to meet from different sides of the Atlantic Ocean and weight classes for a heated bout. They are IBF welterweight champion Natasha Jonas from the UK and Mikaela Mayer from the USA.

Mayer, who holds the super featherweight title, will fight an older Jonas for a welterweight belt.

Mikaela Mayer

‘She’s got a good amateur pedigree,’ Jonas said to Sky Sports. ‘I thought she was unfortunate against [Alycia] Baumgardner. She uses her assets really well. She’s got good shot selection, good work rate.

‘I just believe whether she wants to fight or she wants to box, whichever way she wants to do it, I’m better.’

It is clear that Mayer will be entering strange territory once she enters the ring for the bout due to Jonas’ bigger and better experience in the weight class.

‘I know what it feels like to take and absorb those shots from the bigger girls and I just don’t see her hurting me in that sense,’ Jonas commented. ‘There’s lots of different variables that she’s going to have to deal with and one of them is getting punched by a naturally bigger and stronger girl.’

Jonas said, ‘She was 142lbs [in her last fight]. That’s another five pounds you’ve got to add and still perform. Was she the same person at 140lbs that she was at 135lbs? I don’t believe so.

‘There’s a whole science behind it. You’ve got to get your body used to carrying that extra weight. For so long she’s been used to being 130lbs.

‘All of a sudden saying here’s an extra 15lbs, 17lbs, go and fight the same way you did then – no. It takes time to get used to. There’s a lot of adaptations you have to go through. I’ve managed to do that in fights, from [Chris] Namus to [Marie-Eve] Dicaire and then going back down to [Kandi] Wyatt.’

Concerning the difference in age, Jonas had something to say.

‘What I will say is I’m accurate. I think there’s a lot being made of volume of punches and how ‘slow’ I am. But they land,’ she pointed out.

‘People have said it in the past but regardless of what they say, they land. Whether that’s because they’re so slow they can’t avoid them, I don’t know what it is but they land.

‘I respect her a lot. I respect what she comes with, I respect what she brings, like I do with everyone and I’ll be training to the best of my ability to make sure that I win.’

The girls will be warming up to make their families proud.