Natasha Jonas Thinks Terri Harper May Avoid Rematch

Natasha Jonas thinks she did enough to dethrone the WBC and IBO super featherweight champion Terri Harper on Friday at Matchroom’s Fight Camp. The 36-year-old put on an impressive display against her much younger and heavily favoured opponent. Jonas even managed to wobble Harper in round eight but had to settle for a draw at the final bell. The judges were split on the result with Harper winning 96-94 on one card, 96-95 for Jonas on another, and the final judge had the fight 95-95 for the draw.

Speaking to Gareth Davies of The Telegraph Jonas went on record to say she wants the rematch but doubts Harper will be willing to accept the fight again, she said.

“Of course I felt I was hard done by. I’m hugely disappointed, don’t let this smiling face fool you. I wanted to be waking up with the belt and celebrating with my family as a world champion.”

“I think I’ve learnt to accept this from my amateur career – you can box your best and lose and box your worst and win. You take it as it comes. There’s no point in wingeing about it, it is what it is. I can’t kick up a fuss because it won’t change anything. The result will be the same. I have to look for the positives and take that. A lot of people had written me off. Everyone said I was too old and weight drained, that I wasn’t fit for ten rounds. I think I proved them all wrong. That for me is the positive. I can’t change anything.

“I’m going to push for [for the rematch]. Eddie Hearn was saying [Friday] night it was definitely something he wanted to do again and it interests the British public. I’m not sure it’s something Terri will want to do again. I’d love it to be straight away so I can continue on my journey.  I’ll just wait for the call. This is mostly on Terri Harper because I don’t know if she’ll want that fight again. It was still really special, part of history. Hopefully people appreciate the fight we put on.”

Do you think Natasha Jonas deserves another shot at Terri Harper?