Kiwi boxer Baby Nansen is set to fight at the iconic Madison Square Garden.
It's the one venue in the world every boxer wants to trade blows in and a Kiwi fighter is about to achieve the dream.
Jack Dempsey, Roberto Duran, Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson and Joe Frazier are just a handful of the big name boxers to have shed blood on the sacred canvas inside Madison Square Garden.
This weekend, Baby Nansen will add her name to the register of boxers to grace the iconic Manhattan arena.
Nansen (6-2-1) will go toe-to-toe with highly rated American prospect and former Olympian Mikaela Mayer (4-0) in a six round lightweight contest on the undercard of the Vasyl Lomachenko-Jorge Linares undercard on Saturday night (Sunday NZT).
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A mother of twin daughters, Nansen has been balancing training twice a day around motherhood and work in the lead up to the fight of her life when she will become the first Kiwi female fighter to fight at Madison Square Garden aka The Mecca of Boxing.
Lomachenko, a heavy favourite to lift Linares' WBA world championship lightweight belt despite stepping up from super featherweight, might not be a big name in New Zealand but many of the sport's most prominent personalities consider the Ukrainian - a two-time Olympic gold medallist (2008 and 2012) - to be the best pound-for-pound boxer on the planet and the eyes of the boxing world will be on the fight.
Vasyl Lomachenko will fight Jorge Linares in the main event at Madison Square Garden.
To put the opportunity in context, Nansen - the current NZPBC female super lightweight champion - had her last fight in the AMI Netball Centre in Northcote back in September.
Even David Tua, who fought the majority of his career in the United States, only stepped onto the Madison Square Garden canvas once in his 59 fight career.
The last Kiwi boxer to climb through the ropes at Madison Square Garden was Kali Meehan when he stopped DaVarryl Williamson back in 2007.
Nansen admits it is exciting to fight in Manhattan but will not be letting the atmosphere and occasion get to her.
The crowd is unlikely to be at capacity when Nansen and Mayer do battle but with more than 18,000 expected for the main event and a worldwide TV audience, the fight will carry a viewership far greater than any of Nansen's previous fights.
Mayer is backed by Bob Arum's Top Rank.
In her last fight, Mayer knocked out her opponent (Maria Semertzoglou) in just 35 seconds but Nansen jumped at the opportunity to fight her - even before she was told the fight would be held at Madison Square Garden.
Nansen, a proud South Aucklander of Samoan heritage, has only had nine professional boxing fights but is a former Muay Thai and kickboxing champion and grew up around combat sports.
The women's lightweight division has become seriously lucrative in the last 12 months thanks partly to the arrival of Irish star Katie Taylor - who is promoted by Anthony Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn.
"To win this fight means opening bigger opportunities for me in the boxing world," Nansen said.
Baby "Pitbull" Nansen who fights out of Aotearoa will be fighting Mikaela Mayer on the Jorge Linares vs Vasyl Lomachenko undercard. Huge fight! 🇳🇿🇳🇿🇳🇿🇳🇿🇳🇿🇳🇿🇳🇿 pic.twitter.com/yawVc7OMDa
— Tupu-Mika 🇼🇸 (@ulavale007) April 16, 2018
A win for Nansen would effectively thrust her into world title contention.
Nansen travelled to New York last week and has quickly acclimatised herself.
"I've been working really hard with my boxing coach Doug [Viney] and also waking up at American time to get used to it," Nansen said.
Viney, a former Kickboxing champion, is a well-regarded coach who is currently mentoring Kiwi heavyweight prospect Junior Fa (14-0).
- Stuff
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