Natasha Jonas: Unified light-middleweight champion on an unforgettable year

Natasha Jonas has had an unforgettable year.

Already the WBO and WBC light-middleweight champion, the 38-year-old Liverpudlian will look to win a third world title in nine months when she faces Marie-Eve Dicaire at the Manchester Arena on Saturday.

Jonas realised her dream of becoming a world champion in February by knocking out Chris Namus, before unifying in September with a unanimous points victory over Patricia Berghult.

"Twelve months ago, I didn't know how I was going to be a world champion, but I just knew I wanted to be one," she tells BBC Sport.

Huge fights await in 2023 if Jonas can continue her winning streak, whether it's an undisputed fight with newly crowned WBA champion Terri Harper or a scrap with unbeaten American Claressa Shields.

But Jonas hasn't always had such good times; more than once she has come back from the brink in boxing.

'I didn't want to end my boxing career'

To say Jonas has had a turbulent career would be an understatement.

The first female boxer to compete for Great Britain, Jonas was also the first woman to fight for Team GB, at the Olympic Games in London in 2012. But she fell short in her quest to win a medal, losing to Ireland's Katie Taylor in the quarter-finals.

And after turning professional at the age of 32, Jonas was handed a major setback early in her career when she lost to Viviane Obenauf in her seventh fight.

But she rebuilt her reputation with three consecutive victories, which led to two opportunities to become a world champion - a controversial draw with Harper for the WBC super-featherweight belt in August 2020 and a close points defeat by undisputed lightweight world champion Taylor in May 2021.

Jonas has twice suffered heartbreak against Ireland's Taylor

She came away from those fights knowing there was unfinished business.

"After losing to Obenauf, I didn't want to leave it like that," she says. "I didn't want to end my boxing career like that.

"I knew I had something more to give. With some of the results not going my way, I was thinking, 'will becoming a world champion ever happen?'"

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'I've never turned down a fight'

It did happen - at the third time of asking - when Jonas scored a dominant victory over Uruguayan former world champion Namus.

"Relief was the first emotion," she says.

"It was like: 'Finally, I've done it.' Then it was joy, then it was excitement and then just sharing a moment with everyone, which was special."

A Liverpool homecoming followed, and Jonas outclassed the previously undefeated Berghult.

"There were nerves because all my family were there and it's in Liverpool, but the night went perfectly," she says.

"Everything went well and it was just another where I was thinking, 'right, that's done.' I had fun and I enjoyed myself. Now the pressure is off.

"I represent a whole heaps of Jonases, a whole heap of Liverpool, a whole heap of Scousers, and I don't ever want to let them down."

Jonas - who has won 12 of her 15 fights as a professional - will now look to complete a hat-trick of world titles when she takes on Dicaire for the IBF belt.

The Canadian has a pro record of 18-1, with her one loss against undisputed world middleweight champion Shields.

This will be the first time Jonas has headlined as a professional at a major venue - and she is firmly focused, even though a super-fight with Shields may be on the horizon.

"I've never turned down a fight. Ever," she says.

"I know it's there, but if I don't focus on what's right ahead of me, right this second - that doesn't happen. Nothing happens."

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