Lauren Price routed Jessica McCaskill in a rough, ugly fight to win her first world title today in Cardiff.
Price took the WBA welterweight title from the American veteran on unanimous technical decision scores of 90-82. The fight was called off after the eighth round, before the ninth really started, due to McCaskill’s eye being closed shut due to one or several clashes of heads.
Bad Left Hook unofficially scored the fight for Price by the same tally, 90-82, with a 10-10 for the ninth round that didn’t actually happen.
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Price (7-0, 1 KO) won gold for Team Great Britain at the Tokyo Olympics, and now has her first world title, which was expected today. The 39-year-old McCaskill (12-4-1, 5 KO) is now 0-2-1 in her last three, and most believe that should be 0-3, as her 2023 draw with Sandy Ryan was hugely controversial, a fight where most felt she was out-boxed.
For McCaskill, it seems the wheels have come off of what has been an intriguing and odd career, where she’s taken very little by way of traditional boxing skills and been a world champion with a very respectable run in the sport, fighting several top talents and giving many of them a lot of trouble, win or lose.
That lack of fundamental ability has betrayed her in her last two especially, however, as once she lost just a bit more speed and a bit more on the reflexes, what used to work to keep her in fights no longer did.
Price, 29, looks set for a bright future in the pro boxing game, and has since she turned pro. It’s clear she came in with top-level skills from a fruitful amateur career, and she has really still not been tested much, even counting having a world title under her belt.
Fellow welterweight titleholders Natasha Jonas, the aforementioned Sandy Ryan, and Ivana Habazin could prove tougher challenges if she looks to unify in the near future.