The FightPost Performance of the Year: Skye Nicolson

The FightPost Performance of the Year: Skye Nicolson

It’s the time for festive cheer, but it’s also time for the obligatory end-of-year honours. The last twelve months have been difficult for women’s boxing. Much of the momentum from previous years has been lost. Waining interest. Fights are incredibly hard to come by. But there is renewed hope that 2025 will be different.

But despite the difficulties 2024 has still thrown up, there are a few little gems that we can celebrate. When dishing out those end-of-year awards, it’s very easy to go with the obvious. But sometimes, you have to shine the light elsewhere.

Skye Nicolson has perhaps struggled to get the recognition that she deserves for her talent. Nicolson doesn’t deliver the blood and thunder many demand. Her style is elusive and very much safety first. The southpaw could be in the realm of not being truly appreciated because she doesn’t entertain enough. But boxing is still an art. The old line of hit and not be hit is often forgotten. But Skye Nicolson is a little reminder that there is another way.

Nicolson went into her WBC world featherweight title defence against the unbeaten Raven Chapman in October, knowing it could be the hardest fight of her professional career to date. The pre-fight narrative was that Chapman would be her worst nightmare. The Australian might have to go to a very dark place in Riyadh. Possibly the first professional fight that there was a real possibility that Nicolson could lose. I thought Chapman would definitely take rounds of Nicolson. But I questioned if she could win enough. That was pretty much how it played out.

Chapman made a decent enough start, but it was a typical Skye Nicolson fight once Nicolson found her range and timing. That’s not a criticism, by the way.

The British challenger couldn’t get close enough to do any real damage. The odd punch found its target. But Nicolson always seemed a step or two in front of Chapman, and in truth, won going away. And with some degree of comfort. Nicolson won by scores of 98-92, 98-92, and 99-91. You could maybe make a case for giving Chapman three rounds, but her opponent was just too good for her on the night. Chapman isn’t a bad fighter by any stretch of the imagination, and she will undoubtedly come again. But Raven Chapman won’t be the last fighter to find that they don’t have all the pieces in their hand to solve the great Skye Nicolson puzzle.

It was a perceived extremely difficult fight on paper. But Nicolson made a hard fight look incredibly easy. That is a testament to the class of the Australian. What she served up against Raven Chapman in October has earned Skye Nicolson the FightPost Performance of the Year for 2024.

Photo Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing