I’ve got a job to do – Lauren Price focuses on world title bout ahead of wedding

Lauren Price admits her wedding plans have taken a back seat with multiple world titles on the line against Stephanie Pineiro Aquino.

Welsh fighter Price defends her WBA, WBC and IBF world welterweight belts on home soil in Cardiff on April 4, less than two months before walking down the aisle.

The 31-year-old Olympic gold medallist – who trains in Sheffield in the week before returning to Wales on weekends – is marrying partner Carlie Jones at a Monmouthshire country house on May 30.

“Carlie phones me up and says things like, “I don’t want to pester you, but what about getting this mirror?’,” Price told the Press Association.

“But I can’t get too involved with the wedding now. She knows I’ve got a job to do and I will be able to sort things out after April 4.

“It’s going to be a mad few weeks. I’ve got my home hen in Cardiff on April 11 and I’m turning up for that as world champion.

“But I don’t think about all the belts being on the line. I don’t put pressure on myself, I just see it as another fight that I’ve got to win.”

Price has an unblemished 9-0 professional record after ending a stellar amateur career with middleweight gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Aquino, who is known as ‘The Medicine’, is also unbeaten over 10 contests and is the reigning WBA interim welterweight champion and Price’s mandatory challenger.

The Puerto Rican is four years older than Price, who has been inactive since comfortably outpointing Natasha Jonas at the Royal Albert Hall just over a year ago.

“It’s been hard being out of the ring so long after the Jonas fight, but Boxxer leaving Sky was out of my hands,” former footballer Price said about the end of her promotional company’s broadcast deal, but who will be showcased before a BBC audience next week.

“I want to have three fights this year because I am building towards a mega-fight.

“I had a chance to go to the Albert Hall again, but for me it’s about big nights in Wales and climbing the ladder towards that stadium fight.

“I played at Cardiff City Stadium for Wales and I would love to fight there one day.”

Price wants an undisputed showdown with WBO champion Mikaela Mayer, and that would seem the next logical step should she successfully defend her belts against Aquino.

But big-money fights possibly lie in store against American Claressa Shields, the undisputed world heavyweight champion who would have to come down to middleweight to face Price, or Irish ring great Katie Taylor.

Undisputed lightweight champion Taylor turns 40 in July and plans to retire following a summer fight in Dublin.

“I’d love to go over to Ireland and share a ring with her,” Price said. “She’s done so much for the sport.

“Can I see it happening? Probably not. But I’ve got so much respect for her that it would be a great fight to make at whatever weight.”