Jonas vs Price is everything that once looked impossible

Tomorrow night at the Royal Albert Hall, there is a genuine super-fight between two British women when world champions Lauren Price and Natasha Jonas meet.

- STEVE BUNCE

They will split a record purse for British women in any fight; the money they receive for their triple-title welterweight championship fight will probably be the third-highest purse ever paid to women. It will be history in that beautiful ancient venue.

It took a lot of years for women to get close to earning a million dollars for a fight. The first million-dollar fight between two women was meant to happen 20 years ago.

Christy Martin and Lucia Rijker finally agreed a complicated deal to fight in July of 2005 in Las Vegas. The deal, brokered by Bob Arum, meant that both would be guaranteed $250,000 and the winner would get an additional $750,000, and that made her a million-dollar lady; the film Million Dollar Baby was due for DVD release just a few days before the first bell.

Arum knew a trick or two or three. Rijker played the baddie in the film, the former German prostitute with a love of illegal punches in the boxing ring. It was a simple sell, trust me. Martin was fighting for Hollywood and American pride.