Jade Jones Eyes 'Firework' Cris Cyborg Bout After Bathory Test

Jade Jones has been a professional boxer for exactly zero fights, yet she's already being lined up against one of the most feared women in combat sports history. The two-time Olympic taekwondo champion is 2-0 in the Misfits crossover circuit — both wins coming inside two rounds — and promoter Mams Taylor has floated a bout with 41-year-old MMA great Cris Cyborg as a possible next step.

Jones, 33, isn't running from it. She told Boxing News she'd gladly meet the Brazilian in a ring, framing it as a clash of two icons from different codes — a taekwondo legend against an MMA one — that could produce, in her words, a firework fight. First, though, there's business on September 12 at Newcastle's Utilita Arena, where she meets Power Slap champion Sheena Bathory.

The Bathory Problem

Jones is treating this one with respect, and for good reason. Anyone who volunteers to get slapped in the face for a living, she reckons, clearly isn't afraid of contact — which means Bathory may have the durability to drag Jones past the two-round mark her previous opponents couldn't survive. Jones sees that as the point. She wants a sterner test to keep sharpening the skills she'll need before applying for a pro boxing license.

The pro route was actually the plan all along. Jones wanted to turn over immediately after retiring from taekwondo, but head coach and former world title challenger Stephen 'Swifty' Smith steered her toward the Misfits ladder first. Smith's initial reaction, by her account, was closer to bafflement — a lifelong kicker showing up at 32 declaring she wanted to box. MMA seemed the obvious fit. Boxing won out.

A Humbling Start

The transition hasn't been smooth or glamorous. Jones assumed her elite conditioning would carry over; instead she ended up flat on the canvas after a single round of sparring, drained by the sheer nerves of being punched. Old instincts didn't help — she'd flinch and half-load a kick that was never coming.

There's a deeper reason she's putting herself through this. Jones went through four Olympic cycles, winning the first two and losing the last two while chasing a historic third gold. Paris 2024 didn't go her way, and she admits it took something out of her. But retirement felt premature, and she still craved a scrap. Boxing — smaller gloves, real knockout risk, ego fully exposed — is, she argues, the fastest way to rebuild mental toughness. Cyborg would test all of it.