Two-weight World Champion Natasha Jonas successfully defends her IBF welterweight title against the USA’s Mikaela Mayer, but not without controversy.
On Saturday 20th January in Liverpool, ‘Miss GB’ got the nod via split decision in front of her home crowd.
This spectator watching from the audience had the first half of the fight even, with each fighter 2 rounds up and a round that could be awarded either way. However I thought that Mayer picked up most, if not all, of the rounds in the second half — which certainly doesn’t disparage the heart and skill shown by Jonas, but Mayer performed at a level above on the night in my eyes.
The official scoring was 97-93 in favour of Mayer, 96-95 and 96-94 for Jonas.
A visibly heartbroken Mayer said: “I just hope that Tasha will be the stand up champ that she is and give me another shot at the belt. I feel like I deserve it. And again, I think the fans want to see it.
“I only believe that rematches should happen if they’re warranted. We had a rematch clause on her side, not on my side, but this is a warranted rematch.
“I feel like I deserve another shot, and I want to go again.”
Jonas said she felt she had done enough to win, having secured a strong start on the opening rounds, but sang high praises for her opponent: “It takes two to tango, and I know Mikaela Mayer is going to be absolutely devastated with that result because I’ve been there. It feels like the world is over.
“She is in my top 2 people I’ve fought. She’s a very, very skilled operator. Her time will come again. She beats a lot of the champions that are already here.”