As Skye Nicolson and Cherneka Johnson prepare to fight in separate bouts on Saturday night's Matchroom Boxing card in Sydney, Ellie Scotney, another of Matchroom's female fighters, finds herself out of contract. For Matchroom president Eddie Hearn, Scotney’s is a signature he is keen to secure anew. But he also says women's boxing is at something of a financial crossroads.

“I think that for the big fights, there's a big market,” Hearn told BoxingScene recently. “And I think for the lower entry level point, there's a solid market.” But, he continues, “the mid level stuff is really difficult.”

One inevitable and welcome consequence of the growth in women’s boxing has been, notes Hearn, an accompanying growth in purses.

Unfortunately, he continued, “that makes it more difficult to justify it commercially. There was definitely an element when we started women's boxing that the price point was lower and the value of having women's boxing was higher. Now the purses are higher. You've got to justify the commercial draw. And to put it into layman's terms: when you add a fight to a card, what is that bringing to the show? And the problem is, unless you're making a really good fight, the commercial value of a lot of those fights doesn't weigh up.”

The kind of matchup that Hearn says would be financially viable is Scotney, the 10-0 unified 122lbs champion, against Nicolson, 12-0 (1 KO), who defends her WBC 126lbs title against Tiara Brown, 18-0 (11 KOs), on Saturday.

“Both of them like that fight,” said Hearn. “So obviously Skye fights [on Saturday]. She wants to try and unify, but she also likes the idea of [a fight with Scotney] because I think she understands its value. “But you know, Skye Nicolson or Ellie Scotney against someone you've never heard of, the money they're on doesn't necessarily justify it, whereas Skye against Ellie, or Ellie in an undisputed fight …”

That's why, he continued, “Sandy Ryan has boxed Mikaela Mayer twice off the bat, because that's a big fight.” (Mayer beat Ryan by majority decision in September; the two rematch in Las Vegas on March 29th.) “That's big money, justified. Big numbers on ESPN, great rival, blah, blah, blah. We've had Ellie from her debut. We want to keep her, but who can she fight to justify that money? I'm pretty real and honest about that commercial side: fighters need to be respected, but at the same time, running the business, these are all the things you have to weigh up.”

Kieran Mulvaney has written, broadcast and podcast about boxing for HBO, Showtime, ESPN and Reuters, among other outlets. He presently co-hosts the “Fighter Health Podcast” with Dr. Margaret Goodman. He also writes regularly for National Geographic, has written several books on the Arctic and Antarctic, and is at his happiest hanging out with wild polar bears. His website is www.kieranmulvaney.com.