Skye Nicolson is in Las Vegas, winding down preparations for her vacant WBC featherweight title fight with Sarah Mahfoud on Saturday.
The unbeaten Australian, 9-0 (1 KO), scored the first stoppage of her career in her last fight, stopping Lucy Wildheart, winning in the ninth-round in November in Dublin.
In her 10th visit to Vegas, she will box at the new Fontainebleau at the north-end of The Strip, the first live sporting event at the plush new hotel and casino, and she’s completed workouts at the Mayweather Boxing Club, the UFC Performance Center and at DLX Boxing in her first week, working with trainers Eddie Lam and Bradley Skeete.
“I want to show the world what I have been doing in the gym,” Nicolson said. “We have reached new levels and I am very excited to showcase that. I do want to make a statement win because this girl is No. 2 in the world. She was the next best option after we couldn’t get the [Amanda] Serrano fight. She had a competitive fight with Serrano, winning three rounds against her. That will not be happening this weekend, and if I fight how I have been sparring, the fight won’t go the distance.”
Denmark’s Mahfoud is 14-1 (3 KOs) and she has won her last three, since her decision loss to Serrano in Manchester in 2022.
While in Vegas, Nicolson took in some of the sights around last week’s big PBC bill, headlines by Tim Tszyu-Sebastian Fundora, and she enjoyed watching top fighters going about their fight week business.
“I love it because it was all very new to me coming over from the amateurs because the pro scene was not something I ever saw as a goal or seeing myself doing,” Nicolson explained.
“But I have thrown myself into the deep-end of big cards right from the start, and I love it. I was born for it.”
And although Nicolson has had just nine fights, her amateur experience dwarfs that of many female fighters, although she admits she believes she has attributes that will take her to the top of the sport, and beyond Mahfoud on Saturday.
“If you stop learning, then you should stop boxing,” the 28-year-old southpaw said. “There is always something to learn, room for improvement, and things at which you can get better. I think I am very experienced because I have been boxing since I was 12-years-old. I don’t think many [female] boxers have been boxing for as long as I have.
“I have been doing this for more than half my life, so I bring a lot of ring experience despite being in my infancy in my pro career. I have had 150 amateur fights, so I have definitely spent some time in the ring.
“My natural abilities, reflexes, reading distance, and timing are my strengths, so I’m quite blessed to have those when I face the other girls.”
