Skye Nicolson says she is hopeful a victory over Bec Connolly on Saturday night can see her feature on the undercard of Katie Taylor’s clash with Amanda Serrano on April 30.
Standout amateur, Nicolson (1-0) fights for the second time as a professional against experienced campaigner, Connolly (3-11) on the undercard of Kiko Martinez’s IBF featherweight title defence against Josh Warrington in Leeds, live on DAZN.
The Australian featherweight was present at the London press conference as undisputed lightweight champion, Taylor and seven-weight world champion, Serrano came face-to-face ahead of their battle at Madison Square Garden, a bill Nicolson hopes to be apart of.
“I’m really, really hoping a good performance this weekend could maybe sneak me on the undercard,” the 26-year-old told proboxing-fans.com at Thursday’s press conference.
“But, I’m backing Taylor for the win.”
Nicolson secured a gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth games and reached the quarter-final of the 2020 Olympics, losing out to Kariss Artingstall.
The Queensland native makes her UK debut, three weeks after beating Jessica Juarez with a slick display in San Diego on her first bow and she says she has goals of going down as an all-time great.
“I feel like I’ve definitely done the hard apprenticeship.
“I’ve done the hard years, the work and now it’s time to kind of reap the rewards and show all the years of sacrifice and hard work in the pro game.
“It’s all about legacy for me. I want to be a trailblazer for women’s boxing and I want to be remembered as one of the best of all-time.”
Connolly has faced a string of contenders and prospects with defeats to the likes of Ellie Scotney, Natasha Jonas and Ebanie Bridges, who bids to become IBF bantamweight world champion against Maria Cecilia Roman on the bill.
And Nicolson admits she is looking to show new aspects to her game against the 37-year-old, who has only been stopped three times in 11 defeats.
“The choice of opponent was out of my hands.
“It was obviously a quick turnaround, so there wasn’t a lot of options.
“I would have preferred to have been in with another unbeaten opponent, test myself a little bit more, but I’m sure Bec’s going to bring a tough fight.
“Like you said, she’s been in with really good girls and she’s experienced in the professional game, so I’m excited to test myself, try some new things and show everyone more to me that they haven’t seen yet.”
Watch the full interview with Skye Nicolson below:
