Tiara Brown Upsets Skye Nicolson In Australia

Tiara Brown Upsets Skye Nicolson In Australia

The American Tiara Brown upset the considerable betting odds in Sydney to inflict the first defeat on the resume of Skye Nicolson and made herself the new WBC featherweight champion in the process.

Brown got the victory courtesy of a split decision. One judge gave it to Nicolson 96-94, but the remaining two scorecards were in favour of Brown, a 96-94 card, and a wider 97-93 earned Brown the win.

For two rounds, it was a typical Skye Nicolson fight. Brown was pressing the action but not throwing enough punches to win the rounds. Nicolson seemed in control, but it was also noticeable that Brown was already a lot closer than many suspected she would be that early.

I thought the pattern of the fight started to change somewhat in the 3rd round. Brown started to let her hands go more, and Nicolson couldn’t keep the fight at her required distance. Brown was starting to make Nicolson work incredibly hard. I did wonder even that early, if the American would be a little too much for the Australian. Could she handle the constant pressure of the confident fighter in front of her?

At times, it wasn’t pretty. Nicolson was guilty of far too much holding the further the fight went. But there were times when Nicolson landed some of her patented classier shots. But not enough to convince the judges. For me, Brown had the aggression, and the volume and caught Nicolson often enough to edge the fight in her favour. I thought the longer the fight went, the harder it got for Nicolson.

I had Brown winning 96-94, although it was the kind of fight that could legitimately have gone either way. Eddie Hearn said post-fight, “It was always a 6-4 fight.” I tend to agree, and I even thought that the judges might not even be able to split them.

Hearn also said Nicolson fought her opponents type of fight. But I think Brown deserves credit for making it that way. I’m not convinced Nicolson had much choice in how the fight started to unfold. I thought she started to fade after her good start. Brown was the fighter who grew stronger as the rounds ticked by.

Nicolson lost for the first time in thirteen fights as a professional, but it might be the type of fight where she will learn more about herself than her previous twelve fights put together. The margins between winning and losing were wafer-thin. It’s not that hard to envisage her making the necessary adjustments if the two fought again somewhere down the road.

But Tiara Brown has changed her life. Now unbeaten in nineteen fights, Brown has many options in front of her. Nicolson was 1/10 to beat her. But Brown always believed that she was the fighter to end that unbeaten record of Nicolson. And she was.

Photo Credit: Matchroom Boxing