‘Empowering’: Aussie Skye’s historic Saudi Arabia bout

October 9

Skye Nicolson is embracing the historic status of her second world boxing title defence, defiant she will be “remembered and known as the best female fighter of all time”.

The unbeaten Queensland featherweight (11-0) will put her WBC belt on the line on Sunday morning (AEST) against confident Brit Raven Chapman (9-0) in Saudi Arabia.

The title fight is an entree to Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol’s undisputed light heavyweight title fight.

The stacked card also features Gold Coast’s IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia’s defence against England’s Jack Massey.

Nicolson’s bout has extra significance though as the first women’s world title fight to take place in the Kingdom, and first to be part of Riyadh Season.

Riyadh Season is the Saudia Arabian government-backed cultural, entertainment and sporting festival that has existed since 2019, with boxing only included early last year.

The eye-watering cash behind the promotion has united boxing promoters and made some of the biggest would-be fights a reality, most notably May’s undisputed world heavyweight battle between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury that will be repeated in December.

A Commonwealth Games champion and Tokyo Olympian, Nicolson has torn through the professional ranks since her 2022 debut, claiming her first world title strap in April.

Chapman shapes as her toughest test yet, but the 29-year-old Australian, now based in the United Kingdom, has maintained an air of confidence since arriving in Saudi Arabia this week.

“I make my opponents look bad, it’s part of what I do,” she said.

“How do they (Chapman) think they win? It’s quite funny because they can’t really, let’s be honest.

“This opportunity, it’s what dreams are made of.

“We want to see female fights on all the Riyadh Season cards and the way to do that is by stealing the show.

“To be an empowering and inspirational person to that next generation of females can mean more to me than any world title.”

Nicolson has repeatedly called out Amanda Serrano (47-2), who has vacated her featherweight belts to chase a rematch with Katie Taylor at the heavier super lightweight, scheduled for next month.

Mandatory challenger Tiara Brown could be Nicolson’s next assignment though, should she win this weekend.

“It’s (Serrano) still on the horizon,” Nicolson said.

“I want to be remembered and known as the best female fighter of all time.

“Raven Chapman, Tiara Brown … after I do that, it’s my turn.”

Opetaia meanwhile is eyeing some long-awaited progression of his own, with a potential unification bout in the pipeline for next year.

The man many consider to be the division’s No.1 has struggled to find opponents since sensationally winning the IBF and Ring belts in 2022.

The IBF granted him an exemption to fight Massey, provided he then faces the organisation’s mandatory challenger Huseyin Cinkara before January 20 next year.

Win those and a blockbuster unification bout against the winner of WBO cruiserweight champion Chris Billam-Smith and Gilberto Ramirez – they fight next month in Riyadh – awaits.

“Winning (against Massey) is all I think about right now,” Opetaia said.

“I’ve got a big following in the UK and obviously so does he (Billam-Smith), so it could be built up and a massive card.

“But whoever wins (between Billam-Smith and Ramirez), we’ll take them. Let’s get it on.”

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