Posted on 04/30/2021
By: Hector Franco
The Ring Magazine pound-for-pound number one women’s boxer Katie Taylor (17-0, 6 KOs) will step in the ring for the first time in 2021 to defend her undisputed lightweight championship against the United Kingdom’s Natasha Jonas (9-1-1 7 KOs).
Taylor will be making the 10th defense overall of her lightweight titles and the third defense of her undisputed (WBA, WBC, WBO, and IBF) lightweight championships that she won in 2019 against Belgium’s Delfine Persoon.
Her opponent, Jonas, will be moving up from the super featherweight division. Jonas recently challenged for the WBC title in the weight class against Terri Harper last August in a fight that ended in a split draw.
Katie Taylor focused on Jonas bout ahead of possibly switching divisions the42.ie - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from the42.ie Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Thomas Hauser wanted an inside look at Katie Taylor to learn what kind of fighter she really is. At a title unification bout at Barclays Center, he found out
JIMMY WILDE reigned as the world’s first flyweight champion and is regarded by some as the greatest British fighter of all time. Wilde once declared, “The idea of women in the boxing ring is repulsive and will receive no support from real lovers of the art. Girl boxers will ruin their matrimonial chances. No man could fancy a professional bruiser for a bride.” That was long ago. In recent years, women’s boxing has begun the march toward acceptance by mainstream sports fans. But the talent pool is thin and many women boxers have limited skills. Katie Taylor, who has fashioned a 17-0 (6) record en route to winning the WBC, WBA, IBF, and WBO 135-pound titles, is changing the perception of women’s boxing. Christy Martin was a blip on the radar screen by virtue of her appearance on Mike Tyson undercards. Laila Ali garnered
Photo by Mikey Williams/Top Rank Inc via Getty Images
It’s being reported by ESPN that WBO super featherweight champion Mikaela Mayer (14-0, 5 KO) has the stage set for his first world title defense, where she’ll take on Erica Farias (26-4, 10 KO) in a June 19 co-feature to be held in Las Vegas.
Mayer, 30, won the vacant world title by outpointing Ewa Brodnicka last October and despite her mentioning her desire to unify titles against one of the other champions in the division, she’ll simply be making a standard title defense here.
Farias, 36, is a former titleholder from Argentina but is recently coming off back-to-back losses against Jessica McCaskill which marked her third loss in her last five fights the other loss coming against Cecilia Braekhus in 2017.