Women’s boxing has developed enormously in recent years, with the ladies now filling famous arenas and battling it out in high-paying main events. So it’s time for BOXSPORT to dedicate a P4P ranking to the best female fighters. Today: tenth to seventh place!
P4P #7: Natasha Jonas (15-2-1, 9 knockouts)
Natasha Jonas made her first big statement in 2021 when she lost to Katie Taylor, who still follows her in our P4P ranking, by a razor-thin margin on the scorecards after ten rounds in the fight for the lightweight crown. After that, her career really took off: in 2022, she unified three world titles at half-middleweight, one year later she moved down to welterweight and claimed the IBF crown. The Brit defended her title at the beginning of the year against her pound-for-pound neighbor Mikaela Mayer via split decision.
P4P #8: Mikaela Mayer (19-2-0, 5 knockouts)
Mikaela Mayer has been one of the crème de la crème of women’s boxing for years. She put two world championship crowns on her blonde head with a dominant victory over Maiva Hamadouche at super featherweight in 2021, and the US-American only lost the unification fight against arch-rival Alycia Baumgardner a year later in Greenwich by a 1:2 points decision. Mayer then bounced back with two victories before narrowly losing out to Natasha Jonas in January in a fight for the IBF welterweight world championship – again by 1:2. At the end of September, the 34-year-old will go for the WBO crown in the 66.68 kilogram limit.
P4P #9: Dina Thorslund (22-0-0, 9 knockouts)
The 30-year-old is even ranked second in the BoxRec computer rankings. So far, however, Dina Thorslund has only boxed in her home country of Denmark – which should not detract from her achievements. In 2018, she won her first world title in the super bantamweight division, which she defended three times. In 2021, Thorslund moved up to the more prestigious bantamweight division and captured the WBO belt, followed by six title defenses. A year ago, the fighter from the north added the WBC title. Outstanding in Thorslund’s record: she has won all her fights by unanimous decision or early.
P4P #10: Savannah Marshall (13-1-0, 10 knockouts)
It’s not for nothing that Savannah Marshall calls herself “The Silent Assassin”. The Englishwoman has perhaps the hardest punch in women’s boxing, winning 77 percent of her fights by knockout. Only in “GWOAT” Claressa Shields has Marshall found her champion so far, when she had to admit defeat to the American in the fight for the middleweight crown in 2022. The defeat did not throw Marshall off track. Last year, she defeated Franchon Crews Dezurn on points and secured the WBA, WBC and IBF super middleweight world championship belts around her waist.
Text by Martin Armbruster