Key points:
- Lauren Price (10-0, 2 KOs) is the unified WBA, WBC, IBF, IBO and Ring women’s welterweight champion, and the first Welsh boxer of either gender to win Olympic gold, at Tokyo 2020
- She became Wales’ first female professional world champion by beating Jessica McCaskill in Cardiff on May 11, 2024, and unified the division against Natasha Jonas on March 7, 2025
- She defends against Michaela Kotaskova at Utilita Arena Cardiff on Friday, November 20, live on BBC Two and iPlayer
- Before boxing, she was a four-time kickboxing world champion and played football for Cardiff City and Wales
A gold medallist who started as a kickboxer, and a world champion who’s still happiest fighting at home.
From Bargoed to Tokyo
Price was born in Newport on June 25, 1994, and raised in Bargoed by her grandparents. She took up kickboxing at ten, encouraged by her grandfather, won a world championship silver at 13, and became a four-time world and six-time European champion.
She also played football. She won the inaugural Welsh Premier Women’s League with Cardiff City in 2012–13, and made her Wales debut as a substitute in a 1-0 win over the Republic of Ireland. She gave up football in 2014 and focused on boxing, after watching Nicola Adams win gold at London 2012.
She won Commonwealth bronze in 2014, the first Welsh woman to win a Commonwealth Games boxing medal, then gold in 2018. A world title followed in 2019, and Olympic gold in Tokyo, where she beat China’s Li Qian in the middleweight final, the first Welsh boxer of either gender to win Olympic gold.
A professional career of firsts
Price signed with Boxxer in 2022 and made her debut at Wembley that June. In October she fought on the Shields–Marshall card at The O2, stopping Timea Belik. On May 6, 2023, she beat Kirstie Bavington in Birmingham in the first British women’s title fight, and became the first woman to receive a Lonsdale Belt.
On May 11, 2024, at Cardiff International Arena, she won her first world titles, the WBA, IBO and Ring welterweight belts, from Jessica McCaskill. McCaskill was cut by a clash of heads, and Price won a technical decision two seconds into round nine. She stopped Bexcy Mateus in three rounds in Liverpool, then on March 7, 2025, beat Jonas at the Royal Albert Hall to add the WBC and IBF belts.
In April, back at the Cardiff arena after more than a year away, she beat Stephanie Piñeiro Aquino on a unanimous decision and called out Claressa Shields.
What Cardiff means
“There’s nothing better than fighting at home in Wales,” Price said. Both her previous Cardiff nights, the world title win and the April defence, were at the same arena. Her promoter Ben Shalom said: “She has already created some incredible moments in Cardiff.” The city has a long boxing history, from Lennox Lewis vs Frank Bruno in 1993 to Calzaghe vs Kessler at the Millennium Stadium in 2007, and Fury vs Joshua at the Principality Stadium three weeks after this fight.
The challenger
Kotaskova, 34, from the Czech Republic, is the WBF titleholder with a record of 12-1-2 (4 KOs), and her only defeat is to Britain’s Chantelle Cameron. “I know I will be walking into an arena full of Lauren’s fans, but that only gives me more motivation,” she said. Price replied: “Kotaskova is a tough, experienced opponent who has competed at world level, but I believe I’m the best welterweight on the planet and on November 20 I’m going to show it.”
Where and when
Utilita Arena, Cardiff, Friday, November 20, live on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer. On the undercard, Rhys Edwards fights Lee McGregor for the WBA continental featherweight title.