Two title fights, one eye on the next
Skye Nicolson hasn’t fought yet and she is already talking about who comes after. The WBC super-bantamweight champion defends against Miyo Yoshida on the same card as Ramla Ali, who fights Mikiah Kreps for the IBF and WBO belts. Both bouts take place at the College Park Center in Arlington, Texas, with the main event, Alycia Baumgardner against Elif Nur Turhan, going out live in the UK in the early hours of Monday.
Nicolson told Sky Sports she sees a clear opening to unify the division. The winner of Ali against Kreps is where her focus goes once Yoshida is dealt with. Her timeline is bold: she believes she could be undisputed within her next three fights, and before the middle of next year.
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Ali’s story gets a film
Ali arrives in Texas with more attention than most challengers ever get. She came to London from Somalia as a child, took up boxing in secret, and later became the first woman to box for Somalia at an Olympic Games. A film about her life has just been released, and she says she hopes it creates a positive narrative around her sport.
She is keeping the focus narrow. Win the fight in front of her, she says, and think about everything else afterwards. A world title would be “an amazing icing on the cake”, though she insists it isn’t the end of anything.
If both women win, the path to an Ali-Nicolson unification early next year looks short. If either slips, the whole plan changes before it starts.
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