BRITISH two-time Olympic taekwondo champion Jade Jones will make her boxing debut on Misfits’ show this weekend.
Jones won gold at the 2012 and 2016 Games for Team GB and claimed the world title six years ago in Manchester.
Taekwondo star Jade Jones has made the switch to boxingCredit: The Times
Jade Jones won back to back gold medals at the 2012 and 2016 OlympicsCredit: PA:Press Association
Jade Jones (right) with another double Olympic taekwondo medallist Bianca CookCredit: Instagram @jadejonestkd
The 32-year-old will make her debut on Misfits’ boxing cardCredit: Instagram @jadejonestkd
She will take on Egypt Criss in DerbyCredit: Instagram @jadejonestkd
Jones will take on Egypt Criss in Derby this Saturday in her debut fight.
Criss is the daughter of hip-hop stars Anthony ‘Treach’ Criss from Naughty by Nature and Sandra ‘Pepa’ Denton from Salt-N-Pepa.
She told the BBC: “I think one of the hardest challenges that people don’t realise is going from being at the top of one sport and going to the complete bottom of another sport. It’s very humbling,
“I remember first walking into this gym, I’d never thrown a punch before.
“I said I was going to be a boxer and everyone laughed at me and looked at me as though I was crazy.”
The 32-year-old was nicknamed ‘The Head-hunter’ during her taekwondo career due to her ability to deliver brutal head kicks on opponents.
She won Team GB’s first Olympic gold medal in taekwondo aged 19 in 2012.
Now she has been training under the guidance of ex-boxer Stephen “Swifty” Smith, who was a British and Commonwealth featherweight champion.
And she has drawn inspiration from her former housemate and undefeated boxing welterweight Lauren Price.
Price played football for Wales while also training kick boxing and taekwondo before switching to boxing.
Jones will wear her late grandfather, Martin Foulkes’ name on her shorts after he sadly passed away a few months ago.
She added: “I’ve got his name on my shorts, I’ll be doing my granddad proud and I’ll be there to represent him.”
Jones’s fourth and 2024 – where she lost in the first round – were overshadowed by a missed out-of-competition drugs test in December 2023.
Though she was not accused of any drug taking, Jones faced a possible ban of between 2-4 years for the .
Yet after a five-month probe, she was cleared to compete in the French capital by the UK Anti-Doping Agency (Ukad) following examinations conducted by two independent consultant psychiatrists.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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