Price wants Tom Jones backing in homecoming fight

Wales’ unified world champion Lauren Price is back in camp preparing for a potential homecoming fight in August – and hopes Tom Jones will be there to sing her into the ring.

Price will return to action for the first time since beating Natasha Jonas to add the WBC and IBF welterweight world titles to her WBA crown in March.

The 30-year-old does not know yet who she will fight next, but says a meeting with WBO champion Mikaela Mayer is likely to happen late this year.

For the moment, Price’s focus is on a return to Cardiff – where she beat Jessica McCaskill to claim her first world title last May – and a link-up with Welsh pop icon Jones.

“I know they have spoken to his son so I am hoping [he will be there] to sing me out.

Price says it would be “great to come home and have my own fans behind me” following her eye-catching triumph over England’s Jonas at London’s Albert Hall, when she was booed during her ring-walk.

The 2020 Olympic champion believes a meeting with American Mayer would be “a massive fight not just for women’s boxing, but for world boxing in general”.

In the short-term, however, it seems Price’s sights will be set elsewhere.

“There are massive fights out there for me. I am kind of the one who has the belts now,” she added.

“There is one more to get – maybe that fight against Mayer won’t happen next.

Price’s dominant triumph over Jonas came in just her ninth professional fight.

Despite her successes to date, Wales’ first female world champion expects her performance levels to improve.

“For me, I never stop learning,” Price said.