Skye Nicolson Drops, Soundly Outpoints Krystina Jacobs Over Ten Rounds

Skye Nicolson didn’t get the knockout she sought but still produced a brilliant performance in her first pro fight on home soil.

The 2020 Olympic quarterfinalist dominated Tasmania’s Krystina Jacobs over ten rounds in their DAZN-aired regional featherweight title fight Saturday at South Bank Piazza in South Brisbane, Australia. Scores of 100-89. 99-90 and 98-91 landed in favor of Nicolson, who scored a fourth-round knockdown but had to settle for once again going to the scorecards in another showcase boxing performance.

The win came with the Commonwealth featherweight title, four years after Nicolson won a Commonwealth Gold medal during her brilliant amateur career that ended with her representing Australia last summer in Tokyo. 

Nicolson vowed to sit down more on her punches in determination to rack up her first knockout as a pro, having gone the distance after two each fights in the U.S. and U.K. Her first big effort in that direction came late in round one, when Nicolson momentarily abandoned her stick-and-move style to catch Jacobs with a crisp right hook. The Tanzanian boxer took the shot well, though stopped in her tracks after pressing the action early in the bout.

Jacobs continued to come forward but with little success as Nicolson landed jabs and straight lefts from long range. Nicolson exploited Jacobs’ aggression, working the body and also scoring clean with right hooks upstairs in round three.

Nicolson heeded the advice from trainer Eddie Lam to walk Jacobs into her power shots. It produced the first knockdown of the bout, when Nicolson followed a left hand with a compact right hook to land flush on Jacobs’ chin with a little more than 30 seconds to go in round four. Nicolson went on the attack after Jacobs beat the count and continued to apply pressure in a nearly flawless round five.

A brief moment of adversity came for the local favorite in round six, as Nicolson was forced to deal with swelling around her right eye. A clash of heads at close quarters was the cause, though the unbeaten southpaw was unbothered by the sequence as she was in complete control of the action.

Jacobs all but shut down at a point when she needed to land something dramatic to turn around the one-sided fight. Nicolson picked up the pace in round eight, sitting down on her power shots but unable to dent her durable countrywoman. 

Nicolson entered uncharted territory once the bell sounded to begin round nine. A smile continued to grace her face, soaking in every moment of her first pro fight on home soil even as it trended towards another distance win. Nicolson opened the tenth and final round with a left uppercut before reverting to clean boxing, save for a brief push of Jacobs (6-4, 2KOs) to the canvas inside the final 30 seconds following yet another clash of heads.

The win advances Nicolson’s record to 5-0 (0KOs) since turning pro just seven months ago. The hope is to squeeze in one more fight to close out her 2022 campaign before targeting a world title shot in the year ahead. 

Headlining the show, unbeaten domestic rivals Liam Paro (22-0, 13KOs) and Brock Jarvis (20-0, 18KOs) meet in a scheduled twelve-round regional junior welterweight title fight.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox