Ebanie Bridges Captures First World Title, Skye Nicolson Dominant in Second Pro Victory

 

Whether it’s in the boxing ring or on social media and reality TV, Ebanie Bridges continues to live her best life, as the kids say these days. One of the fringe benefits Ebanie seems to enjoy the most about her celebrity status is flaunting her assets to get a rise out of people—in more ways than one, if you catch my drift.

Case in point, Friday’s weigh-in. As if she were instead sashaying down the runway at a Victoria’s Secret fashion show, the cheeky Bridges—pun very much intended—strode onto the stage in a lacy little green and white g-string, with bra to match, which made Eddie Hearn once again chuckle, blush, and coyly look away like a schoolboy busted sneaking a peek at a lingerie model in one of his sister’s catalogs. Bridges playfully offered him a pair of sunglasses to mask his embarrassment, but he pocketed them instead. 

Because of what she will (or won’t) be wearing, her walks onto the scales are every bit as anticipated by boxing enthusiasts of the male persuasion—and very possibly more than a few women too—as the following day’s fight. Who are we kidding? Ebanie’s weigh-ins have become voyeuristic media events unto themselves which her bouts can only hope to live up to. For what it’s worth, she seems to absolutely relish the challenge, making for a nearly unanimous win/win scenario.

“Don’t watch my weigh-ins if you don’t like it. I don’t really care to be honest, because I am not going to change,” she stated defiantly on Steve Bunce’s podcast. “I love weigh-in dates, it’s a cool day and it’s the start towards the fight. I have a lot of fun.”

Bridges had been sidelined since suffering an injury to her right hand in the process of toughing out an extremely slim and somewhat debatable decision over Mailys Gangloff this past September. Though the hand was gruesomely swollen upon removing her gloves, x-rays revealed that Bridges had not broken or even fractured it as she feared at first. The internal bruising still required significant time to heal, necessitating Ebanie’s six-month layoff.

Her victory over Gangloff was the saucy Aussie’s second in a row after coming up on the wrong end of the judges’ verdict in her first shot at a world title, an April 2021 donnybrook with now-former WBA bantamweight champion Shannon Courtenay, who relinquished the belt last October by tipping the scales two pounds over for her defense against Jamie Mitchell and losing the fight to boot.

In the meantime, Bridges’ only tussle was with Instagram over a New Years’ Eve photo which was removed from her profile showing Ebanie wearing only barely-there underpants and strategically-placed boxing gloves and captioned, “Buckle up it’s going to be another year of punching face, success, learning, growing, networking, trending, internet breaking and of course fun.”

Bridges has also been competing on a military training-type reality show called SAS Australia, confessing during one episode to selling her used gym socks to foot fetishists for $1,000. “Easy money,” Bridges said in her defense. While I imagine this could be construed by some as “networking”—no matter the negligible shape into which it stretches the definition—how an exchange of hard-earned cash for stinky socks qualifies as “fun” is admittedly beyond me. Different strokes for different folks, I guess, so more power to her. But, let’s concentrate our focus instead on the “punching face” aspect of Ebanie’s New Year’s resolution. Which is why we’re all here in the first place, right? Right.

Ten months shy of her 40^th birthday, Maria Cecilia Roman (16-5-1) is a prizefighting veteran of eleven years, and the face Bridges would be punching on Saturday. Roman came into Leeds as the IBF’s reigning and defending 118-pound titleholder, a distinction she has held since 2017 when she unseated then-champion Carolina Raquel Duer by split decision. Among her six successful defenses was a 2018 rematch with Duer which ended with the exact same outcome.

Making her U.S. debut last February, and only her second appearance outside of her native Argentina to that point, Roman was upset by 3-0 Melissa Odessa Parker in an eight-round non-title match. Her four other losses all occurred consecutively early in her career, followed by a draw which ran her winless streak to five fights against just one win that came in her inaugural pro bout.

Bridges was realistic about the fact that if she were to succeed against a fighter of Roman’s caliber, adjustments and improvements would have to be made during training with her coach Mark Tibbs. “There can’t be one fucking mistake,” she admitted a few days out from fight night. That said, she had no doubt about the fact that she would walk away from the scrap with the IBF belt in her possession. 

From the get-go, Bridges busily obscured Roman's field of vision with her left jab—something she had not previously been particularly proficient with—while using the right hand to throw hooks, short uppercuts, and body shots. The defending champion attempted to get some offense going midway through the third round, missing badly with a one-two which Bridges crouched beneath and shot back up with a six-punch combination of her own—four body blows and a pair of hooks courtesy of each fist.

Jabs, body shots, and uppercuts were the evening's specials on Bridges' menu, and she served them up repeatedly and successfully to build an early lead on the scorecards. Ebanie's stamina was a question mark coming into this bout and, sure enough, she did begin to show signs of tiring as soon as the end of round four. Roman took advantage of the openings her challenger allowed with increasing frequency but, while her defense became a little more lax than it should have been, Bridges never relented on offense.

Roman is not a power puncher, all of her sixteen wins having gone the distance, so Bridges had little to worry about in terms of sustaining damage from the champion's punches. However, she couldn't allow for Roman to tally up points enough to pull even or sneak ahead in the second half of the fight. Ebanie's footwork and head movement were vastly improved from her previous efforts and played a crucial role in her success in evading a good deal of Roman's strikes. When Bridges remained stationary with her feet planted, however, Roman was able to let her hands go and land some nice shots.

The bigger and stronger of the two, Ebanie used her muscular frame and lower center of gravity to bully the champion about in the hopes of stifling or smothering Roman's punches. Round ten was fought at close quarters, both combatants slugging away and, if Roman possessed greater raw power, things could conceivably turned out differently down the stretch as she nailed Ebanie with two straight rights in the closing moments. 

Ultimately, though, it was Ebanie Bridges, with her ambidextrous body attack and sheer will to prove to her naysayers that you can't judge a book by its cover, who got to hear ring announcer David Diamante call out the words “...and new...” after ten hard-fought rounds. By scores of 100-91 and 97-93 (x 2), Bridges won the IBF bantamweight world title and intends to make her next outing a unification bout between the winner of the Jamie Mitchell/Shannon Courtenay rematch.      

It turned out to be a good night for fighters from Down Under as, earlier in the evening, Australian southpaw Skye Nicolson returned to action a mere three weeks after making her successful pro debut, in which she earned a six-round unanimous decision over Jessica Juarez in the previously undefeated featherweight’s hometown of San Diego.

This time out, Nicolson was matched opposite the battle-scarred and luckless ‘Lady Luck’ Bec Connolly (3-11), who rode into Leeds on a five-fight winless streak. This skid included a third-round TKO at the hands of Ebanie Bridges last April, in addition to points losses to upwardly mobile prospects like Rachel Ball, Ellie Scotney, Ramla Ali, and Maria Cecchi. Would fate smile upon ‘Lady Luck’ in Leeds? Not likely.

Nicolson made things interesting as soon as action commenced by switching between her long right jab and lead lefts to begin her exchanges, throwing Connolly into a state of confusion from which she never recovered. Skye transacts her business with the composure and confidence of a seasoned professional, but faced nothing in the way of adversity from the more experienced Connolly to challenge her youthful, effortless swagger, not to mention the fact that she holds her hands down by her hip more than she really ought to. You can get away with that sort of thing until you can't, which will be a learning experience for her in the near future, no doubt.      

It will be fascinating to chart Nicolson's forward progress through the paid ranks. Already, she exhibited a greater output and more varied punch selection on Saturday night than she did in her first fight with Jessica Juarez. After having her way with a bloodied and battered Bec Connolly for six rounds of what amounted to little more than a spirited sparring session, Skye was awarded the shutout victory. Connolly had already signed her name to a contract for her next fight, an April 15 date opposite Nina Hughes who, like Skye Nicolson, will be competing in her second pro bout.        

An esteemed amateur competitor with more than 100 victories on her resume, Nicolson was a 2018 Commonwealth champion and represented Australia at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. She advanced to the quarterfinals, only to lose by split decision to Karriss Artingstall of Great Britain. She has stated her desire to box on as many as seven occasions this year—staying plenty busy, building her public profile, and picking up as much experience as possible in the learn as you earn professional fight game.