The featherweight Queen of Queensberry is ready to rumble

By James Hicken

RAVEN Chapman is scheduled to fight incumbent WBC featherweight champion Skye Nicolson on the 12th of October on the undercard of Dmitry Bivol vs. Artur Beterbiev in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This will make history as the first female fight on a Riyadh season card and the first female world title fight in the country of Saudi Arabia. So where has Chapman been and what has she done to give herself this historic and monumental opportunity?

Before she stormed onto the professional scene, “The Omen”, had an impressive amateur pedigree winning the England Boxing Novice Championships, the Haringey Box Cup (the largest international tournament in Europe), and the National Elite Championships, becoming the first boxer from Dorset (male or female) to win an elite championship. Chapman is therefore no stranger to making history. She was also part of both the England Boxing and GB boxing set-ups during the run-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

The route, it would seem, was already determined for the young Chapman to represent Great Britain at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but as the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020. When the Olympic games were postponed until 2021, Chapman declined to wait because she wanted to get her professional career underway.

She explained her decision saying: “My style was never the amateur GB style, and as much as I tried to adapt it, it just wasn’t natural for me.

“That is why I think it has been quite a good transition for me because I feel more natural, I like to plant my feet and throw big shots, but I am busy and aggressive as well, and I like to move my head a lot too.”

Despite her amateur success, “The Omen” always had her eyes set on the professional game and always wanted to make waves in the boxing world, both for herself, and to help persuade fans of women’s professional boxing. 

Chapman has always been a vocal champion for women in sport and this was no different in her time as an amateur. Her gym, Arena Boxing in Dorset, told ‘4 the Love Of Sport’ that Raven was a crucial leadership figure in the gym especially for the other young female athletes whom Chapman would always encourage and assist in reaching their potential- fostering their enthusiasm for boxing.

“More people are watching women’s boxing now and realise that we can box, we can fight, it is entertaining, and people want to see it,” Chapman told the media before signing with Queensberry in 2022.  “I am looking forward to showing the fans that we are good to watch and hopefully, we can bring in some new fans. We are here to stay, we want to make a statement. I want to make a statement.”

It did not take long for Chapman to make the aforementioned statement, with two victories in less than two months, capturing the interest of Hall of Fame promoter Frank Warren, who took no time in snapping up this exciting new pugilist. She was the first female fighter that Warren had signed since the retirement of Nicola Adams and still exists in an exclusive club of only four females in the Queensberry stable. 

Warren seemed to signal a passing of the proverbial torch from the retired Adams to his new prospect Raven Chapman saying: “I am thrilled to add Raven to the Queensberry ranks and add an exciting dimension to our shows on BT sport that has been missing since Nicola’s retirement as a current world champion.”

It took only 58 seconds for “The Omen” to pay back the faith of Frank Warren – with interest, as she took on her first fight under the Queensberry banner. Chapman faced former title challenger Gabriella Mezei at York Hall, putting an end to proceedings in emphatic fashion, stopping Mezei with under a minute gone in the first round, showcasing her relentless style, pace and ferocity in the squared circle – “The Omen” had officially announced herself on the international women’s scene. 

Chapman followed this up, solidifying her position as a future world title contender when she, in her very next fight, took on former world champion Jorgelina Guanini for the vacant WBC International featherweight title in Manchester and put on another breathless and imperious performance to claim her first international honours as a professional.

Once claiming her first belt, she took no time in making it clear that her eyes were well and truly set on fully-fledged world honours, which at the time meant a huge step up to fight the “Queen in the featherweight division,” Amanda Serrano. She told the media: “Going forward, having former opponents of Amanda or working my way to get to a mandatory position where she has to fight me, that’s where we want to go.”

It would prove to be the latter mountain that Raven would have to climb as she put on five comfortable and characteristically dominant defences of her WBC international title, taking on all comers, from former champions to undefeated fighters, climbing the ranks the hard way to put herself at the top of the hill – with only Amanda Serrano looking down at her. 

The fight between two of the most exciting fighters in the featherweight division looked to be all but confirmed in late 2023, but in a shock move, the undisputed champion vacated her WBC strap because they would not sanction a 12×3 minute round fight for Serrano, which caused shockwaves of controversy and debate among fight fans. 

Serrano spoke out on this saying that, “The WBC has refused to evolve the sport for equality”, believing that there is no reason for the sanctioning body to refuse to allow her to defend her world title across three-minute rounds. 

This controversy left the WBC version of the world title vacant. Chapman seized her opportunity to throw her hat in the ring for a shot at this vacated title against former Olympian and undefeated fighter Skye Nicolson. However, a lingering injury prevented Chapman from realising this match-up, as Nicolson went on to claim the vacant title in April of this year against veteran Sarah Mahfoud.

It was a decisive victory by unanimous decision for Nicolson, who, in the eyes of most, did not drop a single round on her way to claiming the prestigious green and gold. While Chapman respected the achievement, she questioned the quality of the opponent. 

“They talk a lot in women’s boxing about the old crop of fighters compared to the new crop of fighters who are coming through with that amateur pedigree”, she told FightPost. “Sarah is very much part of that old guard. You can really see that the new breed are much more skilful, we are better boxers, we are fitter.”

Chapman brought her brief hiatus to an end in July by fighting the undefeated Colombian southpaw Yohana Sarabia, which Chapman said was the perfect preparation for what was almost certainly to be her next fight against Nicolson because “a lot of people are southpaw at my weight”, she explained. “Obviously, Skye Nicolson is one of them, so the plan was to have a double southpaw camp, so the only people I was fighting for six months were southpaws. I am kind of surrounded by them”.

April 6, 2024; Las Vegas, NV; Skye Nicolson and Sarah Mahfoud during their fight on Saturday, April 6, 2024 at the BleauLive Theater at Fontainebleau Las Vegas. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom.

Chapman came through the fight against a tough and durable opponent with another one-sided decision, showcasing once again her ability to set a blistering pace with the ability to inflict major damage to whoever is across from her. Now, as the number one featherweight ranked by the WBC, the stage was finally set for the world title showdown she had been striving for, toiling in the gym day after day with that singular motivation of achieving world champion status.

With eyes originally set on a fight on a Matchroom vs Queensberry 5v5 card in Las Vegas, a groundbreaking announcement was made. The fight was now scheduled to take place on the 12th of October, on the undercard of the light-heavyweight unification bout between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to open the latest Riyadh season card.

The fight has been labelled as a 50/50, and both women have a tremendous amount of respect for one another. Stylistically the two fighters exist on different ends of the spectrum, as Nicolson brings a high level of ring IQ to her fights, preferring to box and keep her opponents on the end of her long southpaw jab. Contrastingly from Chapman, there is an abundance of explosiveness, willingness to work on the inside and throwing an impressive volume of punches to the head and body to wear her opponents down over 10 rounds.

Chapman laid out her expectations for this fight to ring walk media and said: “I don’t think physically it will be my toughest fight, mentally it may be toughest, it will be a lot of ring IQ and a lot of thinking. 

“People may finally be able to see my boxing skills rather than my fighting skills.” 

The excitement around this historic fight and fight card is palpable, the “Queen of Queensberry” has made it clear to the fans that she expects to put on a show worthy of being on this monumental fight card.

“It was just a matter of time and to be able to be one of the first women to be doing that, I’m really glad it’s me, and I’m glad I can be pioneering the sport that way,” Chapman said.

“Hopefully we put on a really good show and just prove why we deserve to be in this position.

“Expect violence from me on the night”.