Lauren Louise Price (born 25 June 1994) is a Welsh

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional fights are supervised by a regulatory auth ...

, former amateur boxer and former

kickboxer Kickboxing ( ) is a full-contact hybrid martial art and boxing type based on punching and kicking. Kickboxing originated in the 1950s to 1970s. The fight takes place in a boxing ring, normally with boxing gloves, mouth guards, shorts, and ...

and

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

. She has held the unified WBA, WBC, IBF, IBO, and ''Ring'' female

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term ''welterweight'' was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...

since March 7, 2025. She was the first-ever female

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

professional boxing champion having won the

title on 6 May 2023 and holding it until vacating the belt when she became World champion. While representing Wales in the amateur sport she won a bronze medal at the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games (), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014 (; ), were an international multi-sport event celebrated in the tradition of the Commonwealth Games as governed by the Commonwea ...

, becoming the first Welsh woman to win a Commonwealth Games boxing medal. Four years later she surpassed this achievement by winning gold at the

2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, were an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that was held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, bet ...

, followed by a gold at the 2019 World Championships. While representing Great Britain, she won gold medals at the

2019 European Games The 2nd European Games 2019 (, ''Jeŭrapiejskija huĺni 2019''; , ''Yevropeyskiye igry 2019''), also known as the 2019 European Games or Minsk 2019 (; ), were held in Minsk, Belarus, from 21 June to 30 June 2019. The games featured 200 events in ...

and

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

. As an amateur, Price was simultaneously the holder of the Olympic Games, World, European Games and Commonwealth Games titles at Middleweight through 2019 and 2021, with the European championship (the EBA continental championship distinct from the

European Games The European Games is a continental multi-sport event in the Olympic tradition contested by athletes from countries served by national Olympic committees within the European Olympic Committees (EOC), the regional association for such committ ...

) being the only major prize eluding her, despite winning three bronze medals. Price also played football for several years with

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It currently competes in , the third tier of the English football league system in the 2025–26 season following relegation. Founded in 1899 a ...

, winning the inaugural season of the Welsh Premier Women's Football League in 2013. Having captained Wales at under-19 level, she made her

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

debut in 2012. She gave up playing football in 2014 to focus on her boxing career.

Early life

Price was born in Newport, Wales but grew up in

Bargoed Bargoed () is a town and community (Wales), community in the Rhymney Valley, Wales, one of the South Wales Valleys. It lies on the Rhymney River in the county borough of Caerphilly (county borough), Caerphilly. It straddles the Historic counties o ...

Caerphilly Caerphilly (, ; , ) is a town and community (Wales), community in Wales. It is situated at the southern end of the Rhymney Valley and separated from the Cardiff suburbs of Lisvane and Rhiwbina by Caerphilly Mountain. It is north of Cardiff an ...

, where she was brought up by her grandparents. She attended Heolddu Comprehensive School in

. She showed a keen interest in several sports, taking up

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of seven players. The primary objective is to shoot a ball through the defender's goal ring while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own. It is one of a ...

, and

kickboxing Kickboxing ( ) is a full-contact hybrid Martial arts, martial art and Boxing (disambiguation), boxing type based on punch (combat), punching and kicking. Kickboxing originated in the 1950s to 1970s. The fight takes place in a boxing ring, norma ...

at the age of ten, the last after encouragement from her grandfather. As a kickboxer, Price won a silver medal at a World Championships event in Athens in 2007 at the age of 13, competing against opponents twice her age, and became the youngest ever competitor in the British Championships. She went on to become a four-time world champion and six-time European champion in the sport and later competed in

Taekwondo Taekwondo (; ; ) is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving primarily kicking techniques and punching. "Taekwondo" can be translated as ''tae'' ("strike with foot"), ''kwon'' ("strike with hand"), and ''do'' ("the art or way"). In ad ...

Football career

Club

Price was spotted by scouts from

. She credited her kickboxing training with helping improve her play, commenting "I could kick a ball a lot further than any of my team mates" and noting that "I might have had a higher pain threshold than everyone else." She was part of the club's under-16 side that won the Welsh section of the Tesco Cup in 2010, being named player of the tournament. She progressed to the senior team at Cardiff and won the inaugural Welsh Premier Women's Football League title during the 2012–13 season after their decisive 5–2 victory over Wrexham in the final game of the season. Price was named the club's Player of the Year during their title winning season. Price was also named the

Football Association of Wales The Football Association of Wales (FAW; ) is the Governing bodies of sports in Wales, governing body of association football and futsal in Wales, and controls the Wales national football team, its Wales women's national football team, correspo ...

(FAW) Club Player of the Year. In 2014, Price stepped away from football to concentrate on her boxing career ahead of the

International

Having captained Wales at under-19 level, Price made her debut for the Wales senior side on 16 June 2012, replacing Sarah Wiltshire in the closing stages of a 1–0 victory over

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

Amateur boxing career

Price initially took up boxing as a teenager but became further involved in the sport after watching British fighter

Nicola Adams Nicola Virginia Adams OBE (born 26 October 1982) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2017 to 2019. She retired with an undefeated record and held the World Boxing Organization (WBO) female flyweight title in 2019. As an ...

win gold at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

in London. After competing in a single amateur bout at 17, she entered the Women's European and Youth World Championships where she claimed a bronze medal. At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, she became the first Welsh woman to claim a boxing medal in the Commonwealth Games after defeating Kaye Scott in the quarter-finals of the women's middleweight division to guarantee at least a bronze. She met Ariane Fortin in the semi-final but suffered a split decision defeat. She claimed another bronze medal at the 2016 Women's European Amateur Boxing Championships. In 2018, she won gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, after defeating Caitlin Parker via split decision in the final of the event. In May 2019, Price was selected to compete at the

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

, winning the gold medal. Price competed in the

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, beating Dutch boxer Nouchka Fontijn in the middleweight semi-final. She went on to win gold against Li Qian of China, making her the first Welsh boxer of any gender to win an Olympic gold medal.

Professional boxing career

On 6 May 2023 at

Resorts World Arena bp pulse LIVE is a multipurpose indoor arena located at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Solihull, England, just outside Birmingham. It has a capacity of 15,685 seats. The venue was built as the seventh hall of the NEC complex. After 1 ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, England, Price won the first British women's title fight in professional boxing history, becoming the first female British welterweight champion and the first woman to receive a

Lonsdale Belt The Lord Lonsdale Challenge Belt, commonly known as the Lonsdale Belt, is the oldest championship belt in British professional boxing. Hugh Lowther, 5th Earl of Lonsdale, The 5th Earl of Lonsdale introduced the prize on behalf of the National S ...

. She defeated Kirstie Bavington by unanimous decision.

WBA Welterweight champion

Price vs. McCaskill

On 14 March 2024, it was announced that Price would challenge Jessica McCaskill for her WBA, IBO, and ''Ring'' female

World titles on 11 May 2024 at

Cardiff International Arena Cardiff International Arena (formerly known as Cardiff International Arena & Convention Centre and Motorpoint Arena Cardiff and currently, for sponsorship reasons, as Utilita Arena Cardiff) is an indoor exhibition centre and events arena locate ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

, Wales. Price won the contest by unanimous technical decision after an accidental clash of heads that took place in the fifth round caused an injury to McCaskill's eye and she was ruled unable to continue at the start of round nine. The win made Price Wales’ first female professional boxing world champion.

Price vs. Mateus

Price made the first defense of her WBA, IBO and Ring welterweight titles against Bexcy Mateus in Liverpool, England on 14 December 2024. She won by stoppage in the third round.

Price vs. Jonas

Price defeated

Natasha Jonas Natasha Jonas (born 18 June 1984) is a British professional boxer is a two weight world champion who held the unified WBC, and WBO female light-middleweight titles between 2022 and 2025. As an amateur, she won a bronze medal in the light-welte ...

by unanimous decision at the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

in London, England on 7 March 2025 to retain her WBA welterweight title, and claim the WBC and IBF titles.

Professional boxing record

Personal life

Price studied a Foundation Degree in Football Coaching and Development at the

University of South Wales The University of South Wales (USW) () is a public university in Wales, with campuses in Cardiff, Newport and Pontypridd. It was formed on 11 April 2013 from the merger of the University of Glamorgan and the University of Wales, Newport. The ...

. Price was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the

2022 New Year Honours The 2022 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...

for services to boxing. Her partner was

featherweight Featherweight is a weight class in the combat sports of boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Boxing Professional boxing History A featherweight boxer weighs in at a limit of . In the early days of the division, ...

boxer and fellow southpaw

Karriss Artingstall Karriss Artingstall (born 23 November 1994) is an English professional boxer who is the inaugural British female featherweight champion. As an amateur she won a bronze medal at the 2020 Olympics, silver at the 2019 European Championships and bro ...

for some time, but in April 2025, Price announced her engagement to Carlie Jones.

Honours

Cardiff City * Welsh Premier Women's Football League; 2012–13 Individual * FAW Club Player of the Year: 2013 * BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year: 2021

References

External links

*
Lauren Price - Profile, News Archive & Current Rankings
a
Box.Live
* * * * * * * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Price, Lauren 1994 births Living people Welsh women boxers Sportspeople from Newport, Wales Sportspeople from Caerphilly AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships medalists Alumni of the University of South Wales Boxers at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Boxers at the 2019 European Games Boxers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Cardiff City Ladies F.C. players Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Wales European Games gold medalists for Great Britain European Games medalists in boxing LGBTQ boxers Medallists at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Members of the Order of the British Empire Middleweight boxers Olympic boxers for Great Britain Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain Olympic medalists in boxing People educated at Heolddu Comprehensive School Southpaw boxers Welsh LGBTQ sportspeople Welsh Olympic competitors Welsh women's footballers 21st-century Welsh sportswomen Wales women's international footballers Women's association football defenders World welterweight boxing champions British Boxing Board of Control champions World Boxing Association champions World Boxing Council champions International Boxing Federation champions International Boxing Organization champions The Ring (magazine) champions Commonwealth Games bronze medallists in boxing