“Surely I get fighter of the year!”
After an incredible 10 rounds of unrestrained action, Ellie Scotney beat Mayelli Flores on Easter Sunday.
It is hard to see another fight in 2026 bettering that all-out war. Scotney's unanimous decision victory saw her unify all four of the major world titles at super-bantamweight, becoming Britain's youngest undisputed champion in the four-belt era.
Scotney acknowledged her breathless clash with Flores was "ridiculous".
"I think we threw a punch every two seconds," Scotney told Your Site. "Everyone was saying someone's going to run out of steam but it just kept going.
"It was a barnstormer. I've always wanted to be involved in a fight like that and to top it off with undisputed it kind of makes it even more meaningful.
"I've grown up watching the mad fights and to be involved in a fight like that, that was wicked."
Scotney had to seize the momentum in the second half of the bout. "[In the sixth round] she caught me with quite a lot of shots on the ropes and something comes over me and I go straight at her," the Catford fighter said.
"She's someone that, if you watch the patterns of her fight, she would start well and will tend to end well.
"She was throwing a lot of volume but it was about what was getting through cleaner, definitely on my part. It was just a great fight to be involved in."
It was brutal. But Scotney's preparations for the bout were fraught too. Six weeks out from the contest she tore her calf muscle. It prevented her from running. "You're playing catch up," she said.
"Little things went wrong in the gym as well. It was just like, wow, your biggest fight and everything's coming at once. A nerve went in my arm, so that was playing up, even more happened before that and then obviously we know that getting to super-bantamweight is a tight cut.
"What I had to endure just to get in that ring, and I fully mean that, it was mad. Boxing on resurrection Sunday I knew it would come at a cost and I had to really carry the cross in that week of fight week. It was testing."
Her issues forced her to stand and trade in that ferocious fight. "The calf went again in the fifth round, then my quads blew up so I'm standing opposite someone that's ready to go at every second… A long night,'" Scotney recalled.
"To fight a fight at that pace and what went wrong in the camp and everything like that, it was hard.
"I prevailed in one of the greatest nights I've been a part of."
It was a hugely satisfying outcome. "The feeling that overtook all the aches and pains was just a peace I'd never had before," she said. "I feel like I'm floating."
But her ambition is undimmed. "There's so much for me to learn, there's so much for me to do and I've only had 12 fights," she said.
Moving up in weight could be the next step for Scotney. "I've completed the collection, I've ticked off super-bantamweight. I've been waiting to make the move for a long while. So I'll sit down with the team and decide the next steps," she said.
Up at featherweight Amanda Serrano holds the WBO and WBA world titles, Tiara Brown is the WBC champion and Nina Meinke holds the IBF belt.
"I'm a person that always wants a challenge and that always comes with a champion. So I'm going to sit down with the team and see what steps are next," Scotney said.
"If I could, I'd go straight into another world title fight. I just want a challenge.
"It lights something in me."
