Natasha Jonas continued to hoover up belts at above her natural fighting weight as she added the IBF super-welterweight title to the WBC and WBO ones she already held with a unanimous points decision over Canada’s Marie-Eve Dicaire in Manchester.

The decision was ultimately wide, with one judge, Mike Ross, actually giving her a shut-out, but after building up a massive lead, she did have to come through some tricky moment in the last three rounds as Dicaire landed some big shots and used her natural size advantage to tire her out.

But Jonas is now just one belt away from a full set, with Terri Harper holding the WBA title at super-welterweight, meaning an overdue rematch should be in the offing.

The pair battled to a draw for Harper’s WBC super-featherweight title outdoor at Fight Camp in the summer of 2020. At the time that had the feel of a last chance world title shot for Jonas, but at 38, she has gone on to achieve more than she could have expected.

“As a boxer you are never fully happy with your performance, but on the whole, I have won, it was quite clear and she was No 1 in the division, so I have fully established myself as a super-welterweight champion,” Jonas said. “I knew she was tough, I trained for it to be tough. This guy next to be (Joe Gallagher, her trainer) is meticulous in his training and he does everything he can to make sure I can perform on nights like this.

“Right now, I am going to go away with my daughter and have a good holiday then I am going to watch my stablemate Paul Butler in Japan and hopefully he can come back as undisputed champion and then we will go into the new year and see what happens. I haven’t had a break since last year, so I will have a good break then come back and discuss my options.

“I knew I had to perform tonight. Because I have been in the position before when all the doors are open, and you lose and then all the doors shut.

“There are lots of names. I’m always afraid to mention Claressa (Shields) because she is always offended by everything I say, even though I am probably the most inoffensive person ever. But she vacated the belts, she was No 1 in the division and she can get down to this weight. There’s (Jessica) McCaskill. I had to win to make sure those options are still open, and they are.”

Ross’s scorecard looked very harsh on the Canadian, with Phil Edwards (98-92) and Diana Drews Milani (97-93) giving possibly a fairer reflection of the action.

There was no doubt that Jonas was well worth the win, though. She was too quick for Dicaire in the early rounds and simply picked off the Canadian.

Jonas kept things simple, catching Dicaire with her jab and one-twos and staying a step ahead, as she moved in and out of ranger well. Dicaire came into the fight and turned it into more of a scrap in the second half and even threatened to turn things around when she landed a huge left in the ninth round, although Jonas finished the final round well.

Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.