Ben Shalom Offers Huge Money To Hannah Rankin To Face Natasha Jonas
Natasha Jonas is waiting for her next battle to be confirmed.
Liverpool’s super heavyweight holds the WBO weight division world championship belt and had hoped that she would now have an agreement to unify the discipline.
Jonas won the belt with a stunning knockout at Manchester Arena in February, ending Chris Namus’ challenge in two rounds under the Kell Brook’s victory over Amir Khan.
And the 38-year-old male tennis player, now under the guidance of Ben Shalom and Boxxer, quickly turned his attention to Hannah Rankin.
The Scotsman has WBA and IBO titles at £154 and has considered an offer to meet ‘Miss GB’ later this year. That is until it became clear that Terri Harper would enter the weight class.
Boxing Social understands that a substantial offer has been made by Eddie Hearn to former WBC and IBO super featherweight champion Harper to step up and take on Rankin, with it as the more likely pick.
But aforementioned Boxxer head Shalom has said he made a “life-changing” offer to Rankin in hopes of getting her on the ring against former Olympian Jonas.
Talking to Sports skyhe say:
“We have made a huge offer for Hannah Rankin.
“Whether they accept or not, I don’t know, but a six-figure offer to fight against Tasha Jonas. If they don’t want to, they don’t want to and we have to move on.”
Boxxer returns to Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena on September 3 with Liam Smith has a header against Hassan Mwakinyo.
And Jonas could also be added to that card, but the fight with Rankin is lined up to take place as part of the supporting cast for Claressa Shields’ clash with WBO middleweight champion Savannah Marshall as both meet in an undisputed fight with the WBC, the IBF Belt and the WBA also at stake.
“We gave her a six-figure chance to be on the biggest women’s card of all time at O2, live on Sky Sports, with two wins or losses both back on Sky.
“Tasha obviously wants to fight in Liverpool, we understand that Hannah probably won’t want to fight in Liverpool because of that fight and that’s why we allowed her to come to London.
“A fighting chance to earn huge, huge sums of money and a contract with Sky – there’s not much more we can do as promoters.”
Details on Jonas’ return, which is likely to play out like ‘Beefy’ home city comeback against former IBO champion Mwakinyo, will be revealed in due course.