Skye Nicolson: “All I can do is chase the Amanda Serrano fight until the day that she retires.”

Skye Nicolson: “All I can do is chase the Amanda Serrano fight until the day that she retires.”

The name of Amanda Serrano has never been far from the mouth of Skye Nicolson. Even a few years ago, when the Australian had only a handful of professional fights behind her, Serrano was already the intended target. Make no mistake, it was always the fight that Nicolson wanted. Even more so now.

Nicolson is now twelve fights in. An unbeaten fighter who has glided her way to those twelve victories. Nicolson is also the WBC world featherweight champion with two successful title defences already behind her, including a recent one-sided victory over her supposed toughest test to date in Raven Chapman. A hard fight on paper was, in reality, anything but.

But that desire to fight Serrano still lingers. The Puerto Rican still holds baubles at featherweight, but her future is somewhat clouded. Serrano recently lost her rematch to Katie Taylor in another battle for the ages. Talk of a third fight with Taylor for the undisputed world super-lightweight titles began almost immediately. But Taylor has mandatory obligations to meet at lightweight and at super-lightweight. Serrano also has options. But Skye Nicolson seems destined not to be one of them.

“It does feel less and less likely as the months go by,” Nicolson told me over Zoom in regards to a possible fight with Serrano. “For me, that is a big legacy fight. But in the same breath, I am going to create my own legacy. I don’t need someone else’s resume to make my resume great. At the end of the day if I am beating everyone who is put in front of me and making history doing my thing, and even if the Serrano fight doesn’t happen, then my name will still be in the history books and I want to be remembered as one of the greatest female fighters of all time. With or without Amanda Serrano.

“But obviously, the Serrano fight is the big-money fight. That is the legacy fight. That solidifies the legitimacy of me being one of the greatest fighters of all time. But if I am not given that opportunity, then there is nothing more that I can do. All I can do is chase the Amanda Serrano fight until the day that she retires.”

That fight with Serrano is the dream fight for Nicolson. But Serrano has shown little interest so far. But the WBC featherweight champion still carries hope that it will happen. But Skye Nicolson will carry on regardless. Serrano is just one name. There are others.

“There are some big fights out there for me. Ellie Scotney is a great fight on paper,” Nicolson says of what possibly could lie ahead. “I think in terms of a big-money fight, not so much. But there are big money fights outside of my division, which we will look at when I am done with the featherweight division. But until then, the likes of Ellie Scotney and any other name who wants to challenge for titles in the featherweight division, let’s go. But the big legacy fights will happen outside of the featherweight division. They won’t happen immediately, but they will happen before the end of my career.”

While Nicolson hunts Serrano, she has become the hunted also. The undefeated American Tiara Brown has long sought a fight with Nicolson. Early next year, she will get her wish. Like Raven Chapman, Brown comes with belief and ambition. But while Nicolson has respect for what the American will bring, she is nevertheless supremely confident that Brown will be victim number thirteen on her ever-increasing resume.

“I think that is a great fight,” Nicolson told FightPost. “She is an undefeated fighter with a high KO ratio. She was a World Amateur Champion. Tiara can fight. People will think this is a potential banana skin fight for me. But I’ll make her look silly, turn her on her head, smile at her, be in cruise control, and win a wide and unanimous points decision. Then they will say Tiara was old. Tiara was done. It will be something, but that’s alright, I’ll just keep doing it.”

You sense that 2025 will be a pivotal year for the ambitious and ever-confident Skye Nicolson. A fighter who wants to test her skills against the very best. Those ultimate challenges might very well be in another weight division. But while hope remains, no matter how remote it might be, one name is seemingly always at the forefront of her mind. It has been a long chase. It might end up being a fruitless one. But a fight between Amanda Serrano and Skye Nicolson carries much intrigue. And risk, for both. It might need a little bit of the Saudi money or the Jake Paul effect to make it happen. Or both. For many reasons, Nicolson will hope her wish gets granted. Money talks. Skye Nicolson hopes the right people are listening.

Photo Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing