Raven Chapman: "Don't get me wrong, Skye is very good at what she does. She is a class fighter. But I just think I do everything better. Just expect violence on the night."

By FightPost: MMA & Boxing News on 10th Sep 2024

It's been a slow year so far for Raven Chapman. A lingering shoulder injury has hampered her progress somewhat, but as they say, business is about to pick up. The quiet period has ended with probably the biggest fight possible and a little slice of history to go with it.

Chapman will finally end her period of frustration to challenge the unbeaten WBC featherweight champion Skye Nicolson in the first female fight to feature on the Riyadh Season blockbuster shows.

"It's definitely been a long time coming, Chapman told FightPost over Zoom. "I have been wanting an opportunity like this for the last few fights. I think I am deserving of it. My last three fights have been against world-ranked prospects. I think it is my time and it has come at a really good time for me."

Despite the wait for a fight that has seemingly been long in the making, it was a fight that was relatively easy to make, Chapman says.

"Timing was just right for the fight. It just came to fruition, and it has landed on a big show. All parties wanted it because of what it represents. As soon as Matchroom and Queensberry started working together, it kind of made sense. It has just all come together at the right time. It is the fight that we have wanted and the fight that the fans have wanted as well. It's the fight that they always seem to ask for, and now it's happening."

Nicolson and Chapman facing off against each other is a welcome relief from a period of stagnation within women's boxing. So many fighters are struggling to get dates, including current and former world champions. After the resurgence over the last few years, there are incredibly worrying signs that the bottom may have dropped out of the market. But Chapman believes the boom period will come again.

"Women's boxing had such a big boom when it came on the scene. But now, all of a sudden, there is not as much excitement around for whatever reason," Chapman says of the current predicament. "I don't know if it was because we were so glad of the opportunity that a lot of those big fights happened straightaway. It could also be a lot of the girls coming through haven't reached that level, so more big fights haven't happened yet. It's strange how it has gone on a dip, but I don't think that will last because there is a lot more talent coming through now. You have to have fights that people want and fights that entertain, and I think there are girls out there who can do that."

But for Chapman, her moment of truth is very much here. In October, she will become the latest fighter to try and solve the Skye Nicolson puzzle. But unlike many, if not all of the Australian's previous opponents, Chapman not only has a realistic chance of winning, but maybe even more crucially, she firmly believes that she will win.

"It's a different fight because a lot of those fighters would have gone in there not expecting to win. But I am going there to win. I won't be denied I am coming home with that belt. That is the attitude that I have got. I believe I am the person to do that, and I believe that my style is all wrong for her."

This could be the first professional fight that Nicolson is heading into with defeat a more than realistic proposition for her. Nicolson was 1/50 on to win her last fight. A first defence of her WBC bauble against a lightly-regarded opponent in Dyana Vargas who was ranked only seventeenth when the fight was initially made. A seemingly pointless exercise that had 100-90 written all over it, but the fight with Chapman is anything but pointless. The type of fight that their side of the sport so badly needs. Especially right now. Irrespective of what has gone before, Chapman thinks she is different from any other fighter Nicolson has previously faced.

"Her previous opponents have been tailor-made for her and very basic. They have been very one-dimensional, but I am not a one-dimensional fighter," Chapman told me. "I have a way of fighting in different dimensions, in the way that I move, that not many female fighters do. I will show that on fight night and show that I am all wrong for her. Skye still has that amateur style, whereas I have got a very pro style.

"Don't get me wrong, Skye is very good at what she does. She is a class fighter. But I just think I do everything better. Just expect violence on the night. She has never had to deal with that. I have got a mental edge that I don't think she has."

The odds say, albeit narrowly, that Nicolson will retain her WBC for a second time. But there is something in what she says and the way that she delivers those words that makes you believe Raven Chapman will be different. The result also.

But whoever is victorious in October, both fighters deserve immense credit for taking the fight when they could have gone elsewhere and taken a much safer route. Hopefully, the fight delivers all that it promises, and it kickstarts a revival for their side of the sport.