Natasha Jonas and Mikaela Mayer appeared to be on a collision course, and now ESPN.com is reporting that Jonas will indeed defend her IBF welterweight title against Mayer on Jan. 20 in the United Kingdom.
The 39-year-old Jonas (14-2-1, 9 KO) and the 33-year-old Mayer (19-1, 5 KO) are both former Olympians, with Jonas representing Great Britain in 2012, and Mayer the United States in 2016.
Jonas jumped from the lightweight division up to junior middleweight in 2022, and over three fights collected the WBC, IBF, and WBO titles at 154 lbs, before moving down to 147 this past July and beating Kandi Wyatt easily to win the vacant IBF belt at welterweight.
Mayer is a former 130 lb titleholder and interim 135 lb titlist who moved up to 140 in September, and will now go for gold at 147, stating before that win over Silvia Bortot that she did intend to target Jonas and the IBF title at welterweight.
The fight will be Mayer’s fourth straight in the United Kingdom, where women’s boxing has simply been much better promoted by the power brokers and accepted by the fight fans than it has in the United States, at least on the whole.