Lauren Louise PriceMBE (born 25 June 1994)[1] is a Welsh professional boxer, former amateur boxer and former kickboxer and footballer.[2] She has held the WBA, IBO, and Ring female welterweight World titles since 11 May 2024. She was the first-ever female British professional boxing champion having won the welterweight title on 6 May 2023 and holding it until vacating the belt when she became World champion. While representing Wales in the amateur sport she won a bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, becoming the first Welsh woman to win a Commonwealth Games boxing medal. Four years later she surpassed this achievement by winning gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, followed by a gold at the 2019 World Championships. While representing Great Britain, she won gold medals at the 2019 European Games and 2020 Summer Olympics.
As an amateur, Price was simultaneously the holder of the Olympic Games, World, European Games and Commonwealth Games titles at Middleweight through 2019 and 2021, with the European championship (the EBA continental championship distinct from the European Games) being the only major prize eluding her, despite winning three bronze medals
Price also played football for several years with Cardiff City, winning the inaugural season of the Welsh Premier Women's Football League in 2013. Having captained Wales at under-19 level, she made her senior debut in 2012. She gave up playing football in 2014 to focus on her boxing career.
Early life
Price was born in Newport, Wales but grew up in Ystrad Mynach, Caerphilly, where she was brought up by her grandparents.[3][4] She attended Heolddu Comprehensive School in Bargoed.[5] She showed a keen interest in several sports, taking up football, netball and kickboxing at the age of ten, the last after encouragement from her grandfather.[6] As a kickboxer, Price won a silver medal at a World Championships event in Athens in 2007 at the age of 13, competing against opponents twice her age,[5] and became the youngest ever competitor in the British Championships.[7] She went on to become a four-time world champion and six-time European champion in the sport and later competed in Taekwondo.[4]
Football career
Club
Price was spotted by scouts from Cardiff City. She credited her kickboxing training with helping improve her play, commenting "I could kick a ball a lot further than any of my team mates" and noting that "I might have had a higher pain threshold than everyone else."[6] She was part of the club's under-16 side that won the Welsh section of the Tesco Cup in 2010, being named player of the tournament.[8][9]
She progressed to the senior team at Cardiff and won the inaugural Welsh Premier Women's Football League title during the 2012–13 season after their decisive 5–2 victory over Wrexham in the final game of the season.[10] Price was named the club's Player of the Year during their title winning season.[11] Price was also named the Football Association of Wales (FAW) Club Player of the Year.[12] In 2014, Price stepped away from football to concentrate on her boxing career ahead of the 2014 Commonwealth Games.[4]
Price initially took up boxing as a teenager but became further involved in the sport after watching British fighter Nicola Adams win gold at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.[4][6] After competing in a single amateur bout at 17, she entered the Women's European and Youth World Championships where she claimed a bronze medal.[4] At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, she became the first Welsh woman to claim a boxing medal in the Commonwealth Games after defeating Kaye Scott in the quarter-finals of the women's middleweight division to guarantee at least a bronze.[15][16] She met Ariane Fortin in the semi-final but suffered a split decision defeat.[17][18]
Price competed in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo,[22] beating Dutch boxer Nouchka Fontijn in the middleweight semi-final. She went on to win gold against Li Qian of China, making her the first Welsh boxer of any gender to win an Olympic gold medal.[23][24]
Professional boxing career
On 6 May 2023 at Resorts World Arena in Birmingham, England, Price won the first British women's title fight in professional boxing history, becoming the first female British welterweight champion and the first woman to receive a Lonsdale Belt. She defeated Kirstie Bavington by unanimous decision.[25][26][27]
WBA Welterweight champion
Price vs. McCaskill
On 14 March 2024, it was announced that Price would challenge Jessica McCaskill for her WBA, IBO, and Ring female welterweight World titles on 11 May 2024 at Cardiff International Arena in Cardiff, Wales.[28][29] Price won the contest by unanimous technical decision after an accidental clash of heads that took place in the fifth round caused an injury to McCaskill's eye and she was ruled unable to continue at the start of round nine. The win made Price Wales’ first female professional boxing world champion.[30]
Price vs. Mateus
Price made the first defense of her WBA, IBO and Ring welterweight titles against Bexcy Mateus in Liverpool, England on 14 December 2024.[31][32][33] She won by stoppage in the third round.[34][35][36]
