Defending champion Natasha Jonas did enough on two of the three judge’s scorecards to retain her welterweight title against Mikaela Mayer.
The electrifying 10 round contest divided opinion with a number of close rounds difficult to score.
An early candidate for fight of the year, both boxers put on a fine display at a ferocious pace for the Liverpool crowd at the M&S Bank Arena, in what was a very close contest.
The pair each had their own successes during the fight, and both believed they had done enough to win as the final bell rang.
Jonas enjoying the latter years of her career.
The Liverpudlian, 39, continued to enjoy success during the twilight years of her career and showed no signs of slowing down.
It was Mayer’s first fight at welterweight after moving up from lightweight. The American looked noticeably bigger than Jonas, who had previously campaigned at lightweight herself.
Two-weight world champion Jonas, making the first defence of her IBF world title, won 96-94 and 96-95 on two of the judge’s cards, with the other judge favouring a very disappointed Mayer 97-93.
Former world champion Jane Couch, a pioneer for women’s boxing, carried Jonas’ IBF title to the ring with the champion.
Jonas started the opening round quickly and landed to the body as Mayer was finding her distance. The challenger was more aggressive in the second and managed to land telling shots of her own.
The champion came out targeting the body in the third, every shot Jonas landed was met by a raucous roar from the home crowd as she continued to land counter punches.
Mayer didn’t let the noise phase her and had an impressive fourth round of her own, she was the aggressor and pushed Miss GB back landing impressive combinations.
The pair upped the pace again during the middle rounds, every punch thrown was met with an instant response and the two-minute rounds were flying by at a frantic tempo.
Mayer continued to stomp forward and was letting her hands go landing the higher volume of punches, pushing the champion back as the pair proceeded to meet toe-to-toe.
Jonas looked for counter punches and was landing the more accurate shots that seemed to catch the judge’s eyes as the pair gave each round everything they had.
The bout was promised to be explosive, and the two fighters certainly delivered on that promise as neither of them took a backwards step and traded blow for blow.
Although the pace was incredible, the quality of shots was exceptional. Both were letting meaningful combinations go and at no point did the quality drop or the fight become scrappy.
Mayer's size advantage helped her be the aggressor.
Mayer landed a hurtful right hand in the seventh that rocked Jonas’ head back, but the champion replied with her own straight left that landed flush.
The eighth round was close again, but Jonas landed the cleaner counter punches. Mayer’s aggression continued as she started to damage Jonas’ face in the ninth round.
Going into the tenth the fight was on a knife edge, both corners believed their fighter was ahead.
The pair continued to give everything they had in the final round, leaving absolutely everything in the ring. The two celebrated as the bell rang to end an unforgettable contest.
Jonas was jubilant as her hand was raised but it was heartbreak for Mayer, who thought she had done enough to win. The American lost for the second time with both loses coming in the UK.
“Unfortunately, I can’t be around forever".
After the fight when asked about how close the contest was Jonas answered: “I thought I was comfortably two rounds up at the end.
“I respect people’s opinion. Everyone’s entitled to one. But the result is all that matters on the day, and I got the result”.
Questioned about what’s next, Jonas added: “Unfortunately, I can’t be around forever. This is probably my last year in boxing”.
Mayer said: “I thought I did enough to win. She won the first two rounds, but then I outpunched her and landed the cleaner shots. I hope Tasha is a stand-up champ and gives me a rematch”.
Undercard
On the undercard Zak Chelli (15-2-1) won the British super-middleweight title as he beat Jack Cullen (22-5-1) in their rematch by unanimous points decision.
All three judges were in agreement that Chelli had done enough to see his hand raised in a back-and-forth contest.
Mark Jeffers maintained his perfect record as he extended it to 17-0 by beating Germaine Brown (13-3) over 10 rounds to retain his English super-middleweight title.
Karriss Artingstall took another step towards a word title fight as she increased her record to 6-0 after a points victory over Brazilian Lila dos Santos Furtado.
Liverpool’s highly rated prospect Ste Clarke made a perfect start to his professional career, stopping tough Vasif Mamedov in the third round on his debut.