INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY: North Wales’ greatest ever sportswoman is a knockout on boxing debut

Double Olympic taekwondo champion Jade Jones was an absolute knockout on her boxing debut this weekend.

North Wales’ greatest ever female sporting star, the Flint wonder scored a second-round KO against Egypt Criss in Derby.

Jade, 32, won taekwondo Olympic gold in London 2012 and Rio 2016, but at the start of last year retired from the sport that made her famous and decided to start boxing.

The former Flint High School pupil set herself a bold target of becoming a world champion in two sports.

Her maiden bout came against Criss, daughter of hip-hop stars Anthony ‘Treach’ Criss from Naughty by Nature and Sandra ‘Pepa’ Denton from Salt-N-Pepa.

Jones was on fire from the start, three successive left hooks flooring her opponent.

The Flintshire fighter has been training with former professional boxer Stephen ‘Swifty’ Smith at Liverpool’s iconic 4 Corners Gym. Smith is one of four well-known boxing brothers, all of them pro champions.

If her debut bout is anything to go by, Jade  will prove to be the total winner in the boxing ring that she was in the dojang, where “The Headhunter” won numerous world and european titles alongside her Olympic gongs.