Emma Nesbitt Set To Defend WBA Oceania Title

Photo Credit: CSN

Emma Nesbitt ( 11-1-0, 8KOs) a rising star in the women’s light flyweight division, puts her WBA Oceania strap on the line this weekend when she takes on Thailand’s undefeated Banthita Pumkrathok (6-0, 1KO) at Auckland’s ABA Stadium.

The 21-year-old trains out of West Auckland’s Peach Boxing gym, which has produced the likes of former IBO Super Bantamweight World Champion Mea Motu and WBO World Cruiserweight challenger David Light.

Nesbitt is excited about facing Pumkrathok and is looking forward to showcasing the hard work she and her team have been putting in at the gym.

“I’m looking forward to this one,” Nesbitt said to BoxingDaily.

“My thing is she’s not going to walk away with still having that 0 on her record, but I don’t doubt she’s going to fight to keep it. I know that much. She’s not going to just give it up. So it’s bound to be a really good fight.”

Despite being in her early 20s, Nesbitt is a seasoned professional in the fight game and has been training and competing in combat sports since before the age of 10.

After starting out as a kickboxer, she has now transitioned into one of Aotearoa’s most promising boxers. Yet despite becoming a practitioner of the ‘sweet science’, Nesbitt can still fall back upon a few techniques from her Muay Thai days.

“When I started boxing, I tried to sort of forget the clinch work, and then it wasn’t until recently that I realised that, you know, you can’t help but clinch in boxing,” she explains.

“Coming into boxing, I knew I wanted to look like a boxer. I don’t want to look like I was someone else trying to be a boxer, and now I think I’ve reached that point, but it’d be stupid of me to ignore the last 15 years of what I’ve been doing.

So now I try to use my strengths or my experiences from other situations before boxing, and I’ll bring it into my boxing to make me a better boxer.”

Since teaming up with Peach Boxing, Nesbitt has been kept busy inside and outside the ring, and a steady schedule of fights has seen her progress at a rapid clip.

“I think I’m not even the same fighter that I was six months ago, to be honest,” she said.

“I think every six months or so, six months to a year, I’m just completely different to the previous fight or the previous six months before.”

The bulk of Nesbitt’s boxing bouts have taken place on Peach Boxing cards, and after fighting and competing in venues around the globe and throughout Aotearoa, she is enjoying the chance to compete in front of her family and friends.

“For me, the difference is that being on home turf and having my family, my supporters, the people that I see frequently, it gives me the extra that I need to, at the end of the rounds, keep, like, keep my chin up,” she said.

“Or have my head high, smile at the end of the fight or while I’m fighting, you know, hold myself with class. For me, that’s what it helps with. Holding myself up to a better standard, because I know that they’re watching me.”

Over the past few years, Aotearoa has produced a number of world-class female fighters, including the aforementioned Mea Motu and former IBF Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight Champion Lani Daniels. Nesbitt looks set to continue the tradition and, like Motu and Daniels, she wants to leave behind a path for future fighters to follow.

“I think at the end of my career. That’s what I want, is to leave a legacy behind that will be there to help encourage other girls and motivate other girls and boxers, and then I can sort of be someone else for them to look up to, for them to come to if they need advice as well.”

Fans can catch Nesbitt in action by purchasing tickets through Peach Boxing’s website.