Much of the focus last weekend was on Amir Khan’s battle against long-time rival Kell Brook, but Betfred instead sat down with Liverpool’s Natasha Jonas.
Fighting on the undercard of Khan vs Brook in Manchester, Jones was able to secure a second round TKO victory against Uruguay’s Chris Namús to claim the WBO female junior-middleweight title.
“Why I did it and took the risk is because it opens a lot of doors and gives me a lot more opportunities,” she explained to Dom McGuiness and former WBA men’s lightweight champion Anthony Crolla at Betfred’s Lightweight Boxing Show.
“We were calling and asking people to box at a higher ranking in the weight that I wanted, and no one wanted to take it as there was a lot of risk and no reward.
“Now that I’ve got a belt people are willing to take that risk, because if you’re not going to fight for that belt what are you going to fight for?”
Jonas could certainly be a fighter for fans and sportsbooks to keep an eye on, as rumours of a clash against Hannah Rankin circulate in the aftermath of Saturday’s scrap.
Rankin, from Argyle and Bute in Scotland, currently holds the WBA title in the same division as Jonass, and so a unified clash between the two could be expected to be a lucrative one in terms of viewerships and by extension betslips.
“She’s been knocked back and set back time and time again,” Crolla observed. “For her to persist and now hold the world championship, it’s very much deserved and it was a great performance as well.”
