Skye Nicolson on Miyo Yoshida, Jake Paul’s MVP, and learning from a loss: ‘I was a bit of a shell of myself’

Skye Nicolson laughs as she recalls the pain. That, in itself, is usually a sign of growth and peace.

“It was a really difficult time for me,” the Australian admits to The Independent over Zoom, reflecting on her sole professional loss: a split decision in March 2025. “I felt like a lot of the issues I needed to deal with were actually internal – mindset, mental stuff, more than physical. I had a great camp, we’d done everything right, I was boxing out of my skin in sparring…

“I think the occasion and other contributing factors, things I guess I hadn’t prepared for that happened in fight week, I let them weigh me down. I was a bit of a shell of myself going into that fight.

“There was a lot of stuff I had to deal with away from the gym, nothing to do with my coaching team. For me, the most disappointing part was knowing how much better I am, and not being able to show that when it mattered.”

Women’s boxing moves quickly, on both a micro and macro level. The traditional ruleset of 10 two-minute rounds means fights fly, but the bigger picture is that fighters often become world champions while they are still being touted as the next big thing.

So it was for Nicolson. Now 31, the southpaw had emerged in 2022 as one of the faces of Matchroom’s next generation, with her spot on the undercard of Katie Taylor vs Amanda Serrano 1 allowing crucial exposure to the wider boxing world. She was an interim world champion by her eighth fight, and a full champion by her 10th.

But after winning the vacant WBC featherweight title and retaining it twice, Nicolson met her first major hurdle. Back home, Down Under, Nicolson went the distance with the unbeaten Tiara Brown. The distance brought defeat, Nicolson’s first.

Yet Nicolson subscribes to a certain, useful sentiment. “They say it’s not always a loss, it’s a lesson. I feel like there were many lessons in that. I guess that’s what those experiences are for.”

Defeats often signal a change of division for boxers, and it was no different for Nicolson, but while many fighters opt to move up in weight, Nicolson dropped down.

“After that defeat, I was just looking at everything I was doing and working out where can I be better,” she says. “I wasn’t working with a nutritionist, so I wanted to get my body composition done, make sure I was actually boxing in the right division for me. There, I was told that super-bantam was probably ideal, and bantam was even possible.” That said, her own mention of bantamweight draws a nervous laugh out of Nicolson.

“So, to be boxing at featherweight, it just felt like: why not see how I feel going down? I’m really, really glad I did, because physically it’s the best I’ve ever felt – and probably where I should have always been. I definitely feel like I have the height and reach to box at 126lb and probably even 130, but based off my physique right now and a year ago… It was 122, so I feel very, very good at this weight.”

In Nicolson’s case, reinvention equalled reinvigoration.

On her debut at super-bantamweight, she won in two rounds, and her sophomore outing yielded the same result. Nicolson even managed one more win in 2025, before beating Mariah Turner this spring to win the interim WBC title – which was soon upgraded, when Britain’s Ellie Scotney vacated the main belt.

And then came an unusual career update.

With many of the sport’s top female talents flocking to Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions (MVP), but with Matchroom keen to keep Nicolson, the two companies struck a “strategic alliance”. It means Nicolson will make her MVP debut on Sunday, taking on Miyo Yoshida, though she can still fight for Matchroom.

“Matchroom came to me with a conversation around what it would look like,” Nicolson explains. “For me, it did feel like a no-brainer to merge. I never would have wanted to leave Matchroom, so I kind of get the best of both worlds in the sense that we can make the biggest and best fights out there.

“Obviously MVP have such a big stable, Matchroom obviously have the experience, so I just feel like it made perfect sense for me. I want to be unifying the division, I want to be an undisputed world champion, so hopefully we can see those big fights in 2027.

“We could see me fighting the winner of Ramla Ali and Mikiah Kreps; they’re fighting for two of the belts [on Sunday]. Melissa Mortensen has the other belt, so I feel like within two or three fights, we could see me becoming undisputed. That has kind of become my main focus.”

As much as she wants to unify the belts at her new weight, Nicolson knows that some of her biggest tests and business opportunities remain up at featherweight.

“I’ve said right from the get-go when I went to 122lb, it wasn’t goodbye to 126. I’m more than ready to take fights at 126 as well. Right now the 122lb division has opened back up, with Ellie moving up, so I guess that ever-elusive chance at finally fighting for undisputed feels a lot closer.

“But obviously boxing is a business at the end of the day. I want to be in the biggest fights, I also want to be in legacy fights. I think the rematch with Tiara Brown will be inevitable. I’m excited for her vs Ellie, and obviously the winner of that fight is also a fight that I would definitely be chasing.”

Yet there were similar hopes for Nicolson during her first world-title reign, before the tumult of her first loss, meaning she cannot look past Yoshida in Dallas.

Of her preparation, Nicolson says: “I’m a very reactive fighter, so I feel like a lot of my style is very much on what’s in front of me. I think people have different performances against all different types of opponents – different heights, different stances.

“So, I will always watch some tape of my opponents to get an idea for their style, but I never take that as gospel. I leave a lot of that kind of gameplan, tape stuff, to my team. I’m more focused on what’s happening right in front of me. I focus on the work I do in the gym to make sure that I’m ready for anything.”

Reinvented, reinvigorated, and ready.