Lauren Price vs Jessica McCaskill: Welsh boxer ready for title chance

An Olympic gold medallist with the chance to join the greats of Welsh boxing as a world champion, Lauren Price is no ordinary sporting star.

As an eight-year-old child, Price wrote in a school letter that her three ambitions for her life were to become a kickboxing world champion, to play international football for Wales and to compete at the Olympic games.

A former four-time world champion kickboxer and international footballer, Price has made her childhood dreams come true.

Now she looks to become Wales’ 14th world champion boxer – the first female – as she challenges Jessica McCaskill for the WBA, IBO and Ring Magazine welterweight titles at Cardiff’s Utilita Arena, in a fight that will be broadcast live on BBC 2 Wales.

After successfully ticking off her childhood bucket list before she even turned professional, Price says she is now focusing on the “legacy” part of her career.

“I want to do for Wales what Katie Taylor has done for Ireland,” she says.

Price says she owes everything she has in life to her grandparents Derek and Linda.

At just three days old it was decided her parents would not be able to care for her and her grandparents “saved me from a life in care.”

Their home in Ystrad Mynach became Price’s home and it was obvious from an early age that sport was to be Price’s primary focus and salvation.

Nicknamed Tigger due to her boundless energy, Price spent her childhood and teenage years training relentlessly at both football and kickboxing.

Her first kickboxing coach, Rob Taylor, remembers her insatiable work-rate.

“She just had such an appetite for working. She always wanted to hit the pads,” he recalls.

“She was training seven, eight, nine, 10 hours a week. Three, four nights a week. Her gran and granddad would bring her along. She’s back again, back again.

“We’d try a competition and she’d do well in that. Then we’d move on and on. Her work-rate was infectious.”

Price won four senior world kickboxing titles, as well as a host of European golds and her grandparents were with her every step of the way.

By the age of 14 she was no longer allowed to play football with boys, so she moved to Georgetown Girls in Merthyr Tydfil and then Cardiff City Women.

“In training she’d be there early. Sometimes before I’d even set the cones up. And she’d be there right until the end,” her former coach Lesley-Ann Judd remembers.

“If she needed to work on something, she’d work on it. She listened and everything was just perfected.”

Price represented Wales at under-16, under-17, under-19 and senior level – all before her 17th birthday.

She went on to play for her country 52 times across all age groups and captained Wales Under-19s, winning two senior caps.

Before she was even 18 Price had ticked off two of her three ambitions, but the desire to be an Olympian never wavered, something that had stuck with her since watching Kelly Holmes win Olympic gold.

Raised by her grandmother Linda to believe that her dreams were achievable if she worked hard enough, Price briefly tried taekwondo – she moved to Manchester and lived with future Olympic gold medal winner Jade Jones – but the sport was not quite right.

Better with her hands than legs, Price tried boxing and in 2014 she was given the chance to box for Team Wales, before joining the Team GB set-up after the 2016 Olympics.

Price was a “natural talent,” according to GB Boxing performance director Rob McCracken, still her trainer today, but she had worked extremely hard even to reach Sheffield.

Welsh boxer Kyren Jones, who boxed for Team Wales with Price at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, recalls how different her life was to the rest of the Welsh squad.

“We’d work all week and then try and recover over the weekend,” he told BBC Sport Wales.

“But Lauren, she’d be out on Friday and Saturday night, working for her grandparents driving a taxi. She was just relentless. She is someone I’ve always looked up to.”

Price recalls “ferrying the drunks to and from Cardiff,” as she maintained her Olympic dream.

Price won gold at the delayed Tokyo Olympics, fulfilling her lifelong ambition as she beat China’s Li Qian, the world champion, in the final.

Sadly, grandfather Derek was not there to see it, having died in November 2020 having suffered with dementia.

Price, who always showed off her medals to her grandfather, returned home and placed her gold medal next to the vase that contained his ashes.

“He was a massive part of my life and career and when I won gold you saw me looking up,” Price says. “I believe he was looking down on me that day. No matter what, him and my nan will always be a massive part of my life.

“He was my number one fan.”

Awarded an MBE for her services to sport, Price’s childhood dreams had all come true before she even turned professional.

Price switched over to the pro ranks after the Olympics, admitting her phone “blew up,” with offers from all the major UK boxing promoters.

She opted to join Boxxer’s stable and fight on Sky Sports and has looked extremely impressive in the welterweight division, winning every round of her six pro fights.

Now, however, she fights the top welterweight, Jessica McCaskill, bidding to make history as Wales’ first female world champion.

Wales’ 13th world champion, Joe Cordina, has no doubt his friend will get the job done.

“It’s in touching distance for her, all she has to do is grab it now,” he said.

“I hope she enjoys every second of it. Fighting for a world title in your home country is special, she should soak it all up. I believe she will win, but she might not fight in Cardiff again.”

Another former Welsh world champion, Barry Jones, says Price is a “special” talent.

“McCaskill is a top 10 pound-for-pound fighter… on paper it’s a big ask, it’s too big an ask even,” he said.

“But I think Lauren wins and I think she walks it. If she frustrates her with her movement, Price will go to work and put on a dominant performance. I think she will put on a masterclass.”

Price feels her time has come to add her name to the greats of Welsh boxing.

“I haven’t been out of my comfort zone yet, I’ve won every round of every pro fight I’ve had, I’ve enjoyed myself. I do think Jessica is going to be my toughest test, she is going to ask questions of me,” she added.

“But I believe I will win and put on a classy performance as well. There is so much more to come from me that people haven’t seen yet.

“As my nan used to say to me, ‘reach for the moon and if you fall short, you will still land on the stars.’”

You can watch Lauren Price v Jessica McCaskill for the world welterweight title on BBC Two Wales, Saturday, 11 May at 21:00 BST and later on demand.

BBC Wales has also been given exclusive access to the Price camp in the days before the fight.

You can watch the full documentary on BBC Two Wales at 19:00 BST on Friday, 10 May and later on demand.