MVPW07: Nicolson promises career-best form vs. Yoshida on five-title Nov. 8 card

Skye Nicolson has a lot riding on her Most Valuable Promotions debut. She returns from an injury that wiped out her August date, and she is already looking past Miyo Yoshida to a unification fight.

Nicolson, a 31-year-old Australian, has spent her whole career with Eddie Hearn's Matchroom Boxing, which has now struck a strategic partnership with MVP. She was the face of that announcement. Days after it, and after her fight with Yoshida was set, she suffered the injury that pushed the show to November 8. She told Bloody Elbow the setback was frustrating because she had never been through anything like it.

She says it has not slowed her. "Expect a career-best performance from me," she said, calling this her best camp yet and claiming she is dropping sparring partners. That would be a change of pace: only three of her 16 wins have come by knockout, according to Bloody Elbow.

The next step she wants is a big one. She plans to push for unification with the winner of Ramla Ali vs. Mikiah Kreps, the co-main event, which Bloody Elbow reports is for the WBO and IBF belts.

The long-chased fight with Amanda Serrano looks more distant. Nicolson pushed hard for it during her featherweight reign, and she says she will keep chasing it but that it feels less and less likely, with Serrano near the end of her career. She insists there is no bad blood. A Serrano press conference is expected next week.

Above all of this, Turhan vs. Baumgardner tops the card. Baumgardner is a 32-year-old American who has fought at super featherweight, and MVP built its promotion around her. Five bouts are marked as world title fights, though the promotion has not said which sanctioning bodies and weight classes attach to each belt. The Nicolson-Yoshida result will show whether her camp claims hold up and whether the unification talk is justified.