Price dominates Jonas to unify, Dubois retains title
Lauren Price was far too good for Natasha Jonas, unifying three welterweight titles in London.
Lauren Price left no doubt about her class as a professional, as the Olympic gold medalist unified three welterweight titles with a dominant victory over Natasha Jonas today at London’s famed Royal Albert Hall.
Price added the WBC and IBF titles to the WBA belt she brought to the fight, winning on unanimous decision scores of . Bad Left Hook unofficially scored the fight 100-90 for Price.
Jonas (16-3-1, 9 KO) looked every day of a 40-year-old fighter against the younger, fresher, and simply better Price (9-0, 2 KO), who was especially effective with counter right hooks, but really owned the ring in every aspect of the fight.
For what it’s worth, the only remaining major title that Price doesn’t hold is the WBO belt, which Mikaela Mayer defends against Sandy Ryan on March 29.
Caroline Dubois survives scare, retains WBC title
Carline Dubois scored a majority decision win over Bo Mi Re Shin on scores of 95-95, 98-93, and 98-92. The even card is atrocious, this is not a case where that’s the right one and the other two are home cooking. Clear Dubois win; great effort from Shin, but a clear Dubois win.
Dubois (11-0-1, 5 KO) did survive a scare in the 10th and final round, where she got cracked by a hard-charging, desperate Shin (18-3-3, 10 KO), who had fought with toughness throughout the bout. Bad Left Hook unofficially had it 98-92 for Dubois, giving Shin the opening and closing rounds, but otherwise the home fighter mostly dominated, though not for lack of effort from the challenger.
“Bo was very rough and tough, she just charges in, head down, and swings for the rafters. She did exactly what I expected,” Dubois said.
Asked about getting rocked a bit in the final round, Dubois said, “I feel like I need to learn how to fight on the inside. It’s one thing doing it in sparring, another thing in the ring with the crowd, the lights — it’s important to master that. I tried to do it. I don’t know if I was successful, but I tried!”
More results
- Karriss Artingstall UD-10 Raven Chapman: A nice return to action and form for Artingstall (7-0, 1 KO), who hadn’t fought in about 13.5 months and looked sharper here than she did that night. Chapman (9-2, 2 KO) loses her second straight, but both to Olympic medal boxers, first Skye Nicolson and now Artingstall, very good (at the least) technicians. Chapman didn’t fight badly or anything, it’s just a level above her, but she was there to compete. Scores were 97-92, 98-91, and 96-93. Bad Left Hook unofficially had it 98-91 for Artingstall, who scored a second round knockdown.
- Jasmina Zapotoczna SD-10 Chloe Watson: Think the judges were fair here, and I mean all of them. I had this 96-94 for Watson in a very tight affair, but could have seen up to the 97-93 card she got. However, I can also understand the pair of 96-95 cards that gave Zapotoczna the win and the European flyweight title. It was just very competitive, well-matched and well-fought, a good display from both women. Zapotoczna (9-1, 0 KO) was born in Poland but raised and lives in the United Kingdom, so she wasn’t really an outsider here or anything, but she might have been a mild underdog. Watson drops to 8-1 (0 KO), and there could easily be a rematch of this one unless Zapotoczna can secure a world title fight next.
- Francesca Hennessy PTS-8 Gemma Ruegg: The 20-year-old Hennessy moves to 6-0 (1 KO) with a clean sweep on the referee’s card, winning it 80-72, which was the score to have, the obvious score of the fight. Hennessy is a fun fighter but there are certainly challenges to come, though she passed another test and looked sharp. Ruegg (8-13-1, 1 KO) is better than her record, so this is really a better win than it might seem on paper. The 40-year-old knows her business and did her job in there, she was just second-best, which was expected. Hennessy having it her way to the degree she did was nice work by the prospect, and I think she looked improved from her last couple.