Skye Nicolson: “I’ve got big goals I want to achieve and I know what I am capable of. I’m confident, I back myself and if the opportunity comes I am going to take it.”
Words come easy. Words spoke with true conviction. Far less so. Fighters by the nature of their sport, have to sell many things, including themselves. Many say plenty, but few in truth, truly believe. They may hope their words carry meaning, sometimes you sense even they doubt.
But there are those that impress, you listen, learn and believe. Skye Nicolson is one of the few.
Boxing is an art. Nicolson paints a picture of potential brilliance. I’ve labelled her previously as possibly the best prospect in the sport. Four fights in, her opponent’s only making a cameo appearance in those crucial early learning fights, I’ve seen nothing to reduce my expectations. If anything, they have been enhanced.
The unbeaten Australian featherweight has impressed, hardly taken a punch in anger, her pre-professional boasts of multiple world titles are not only believable, Nicolson might even have understated her potential. Over Zoom, one word was on repeat. Excited. She clearly is. We should be also.
Just days from flying back home to Australia for her first title fight as a professional, Nicolson is already in fight mode. Happy with her life and career. Now based in the UK, training in solitude under the fountain of knowledge that is Eddie Lam, Nicolson is ready to go again, after for her anyway, an extended time away from the ring:
“I’m loving it, I feel as though I have been waiting so long for this 5th fight. I had my first four fights really close together so this feels like a really long wait and I’m so excited to get back in there,” Nicolson told me after another long day of training. Two hard sessions in the bank, a few weeks out from the biggest fight of her career to date.
The start to her professional career was rapid by any standards. Four fights in ninety-one days, every fight card that was announced, Nicolson seemed to be on it. There were no regrets, but by the fourth fight, a still impressive win over Gabriela Bouvier back in June, the body and mind were in need of a rest Nicolson concedes:
“I was definitely ready for a break. But for me, I love the momentum as well. I kind of hate that feeling of returning to training after a break because I am such an all-or-nothing person. When I had six weeks away from the gym I literally did no training. It was all bad food, lazy, Netflix and no training. When I’m doing it I don’t feel guilty at all. But going back to training was just horrible.”
The rest and subsequent excess were very much earned. Upon signing with Matchroom Nicolson was given the platform to shine and she didn’t waste it. When I asked the featherweight prospect what her best performance to date was, it was probably for many reasons the night she was the opening act on one of the biggest fight cards of the year at the iconic Madison Square Garden:
“Probably the New York fight against Shanecqua Paisley Davis was I think my best performance. Her style definitely suited me as well. I think the big occasion as well, fighting on the Taylor/Serrano card I rise to the occasion when it is something like that. And that was the only one of the four I did championship weight as well which is where I am at my best and I am keen to keep fighting at championship weight as well.”
What Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano served up in April will have inspired many. Nicolson was part of the show, but the headline act left her aspiring to be in that position herself in the not too distant future:
“It was so good and the fight lived up to all the hype. The girls put on such a good show, it was so exciting from the opening bell to the final bell. It made me feel excited to hopefully be in big fights like that as well.”
Nicolson is clearly a fighter who loves her craft. In the four fights so far we have seen little glimpses of what lies ahead. The natural flow of her talent, and the broad smile that lands when her work especially pleases her. Akin to Villanelle from Killing Eve, a smiling assassin who takes pleasure in her work, but for Nicolson, it is just a sign of enjoyment:
“I think it is because I enjoy it. I’m just out there, enjoying it, having fun. And when I land a good shot or make them miss, I am just enjoying myself, it just comes natural.”
Nicolson is ambitious without a hint of arrogance. Only confidence. There is no title in her possession just yet, but already just a few weeks away from her first title challenge, Nicolson is already talking of winning a world title in the next six months. The opponent doesn’t seem to matter, and even when I suggested she might have to get through Amanda Serrano, the wry smile said plenty:
“I’ve got big goals I want to achieve and I know what I am capable of. I’m confident, I back myself and if the opportunity comes I am going to take it. Whoever has got the belts I’ll be ready for them. If that is Serrano, then yes, I’ll be ready for her.”
But before talk of world titles and a possible mouth-watering showdown with one-half of that incredible fight in New York, Nicolson gets the first taste of professional gold. On October 15th in her native land, Nicolson will challenge for the vacant Commonwealth featherweight title against Tasmania’s Krystina Jacobs. That word, excited was evident again, and for good reason. Nicolson knows it is the next important step in her career, the fight where it gets a little more serious:
“It’s hard to explain in other ways that I am so excited because that’s what I am, so excited. I can’t wait, I’m flying out this weekend. I am going to have about twelve days out there, getting my body adapted back to the time zone. I really just can’t wait to do it in front of an Aussie fight crowd.”
That rapid start to her career left Nicolson with little time in between fights. Training camps were short, a few weeks removed from a fight and she was back in there again. The fight with Jacobs will be her first full training camp, and Nicolson is promising that we will see many improvements come fight night in Brisbane:
“I think this will be my best performance by far. Obviously, leading up to my debut I had never trained as a professional before. I was with a new coach, a new team, living in a new country away from everyone I knew and we literally had five or six weeks together before that first fight. And then we had three or four weeks in between the other fights as well. And for this fight, we have done around twelve weeks already. So we have had a lot of time to slow things down, work on things, and add new tools. I am definitely sitting down on my shots more now. I’m very excited to showcase what we have been working on. Yeah, new levels.
“We are not trying to change my style, we are just adding bits and pieces to it to become a more rounded fighter. I don’t just want to be known as a slick counter puncher. I want to show I can fight at close range, that I can punch, I know I’ve got power. I don’t want to be seen as just a neat little boxer, I want to show I can be more than that.”
I remember back in March, being ringside in Leeds when Nicolson beat Bec Connolly and seeing first-hand the distance control that the Australian had, something you can’t really grasp from a television set. Speaking to Connolly afterwards, who from memory couldn’t land a punch on her, saying I couldn’t hit her and I didn’t realise Nicolson was that good. It is something Nicolson gets a lot:
“A lot of people watch me from the outside and they think I’m overrated and over-hyped. And then they fight me or spar, and then they think, ok, I get it now.”
Even without the likes of Serrano, Nicolson will not be short of future opponents as her career advances. The unbeaten duo Raven Chapman and the fighter who ended her Olympic dream in Tokyo, Karriss Artingstall, are obvious but nevertheless intriguing options for the future. And fights which Nicolson wouldn’t shy away from:
“I don’t think Raven and Karriss have any interest in boxing me anytime soon. I think down the line, with titles on the line, there are definitely big fights to be made there. I’m willing to fight anyone, but I don’t see them being interested in the fight right now.”
Being crowned an Olympic champion has always been a lifetime goal for Nicolson. In Tokyo, she was denied a chance of a medal only by losing a wafer-thin decision to Artingstall. Despite turning professional earlier this year, that Olympic dream isn’t yet fully extinguished. Paris in 2024 is still very much an option, but how the qualification process will work and where her professional career develops will determine if Paris becomes a reality:
“I would love to go to Paris because it has been that fire that has been burning inside me for so long and that’s not easy for me to let go of. But at the same time, I am very focussed on my pro career right now, so it will depend on where my pro career is around the middle of next year and what the Olympic qualification process will be for me, I will have to weigh up my options when the time comes.”
It is clear the professional career is the priority. If the Olympics can be accommodated around it, Nicolson will be in Paris. But Paris or not, the paid ranks are where her future lies. And it could be a golden one. At just 27, the peak is not yet here, and despite the promise shown already, you feel Nicolson is only just getting started. With her first full training camp, Jacobs could be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nicolson promises improvements, seeing new levels. And it will be a fight decided by just that.
Talk of Serrano and world titles might seem premature to some. Stupid even. But Nicolson seems cut from a different cloth. There is something about her, what you need in boxing, she seems to have it. Nicolson is good. In truth, she’s very good. Nicolson talks of those big goals and knowing how good she is and what she is capable of. Talk is cheap as they say, and boxing is a sport of false bravado. But Nicolson has the look of a fighter who will be proving a lot of people wrong. And proving herself right.
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