LAS VEGAS – Tiara Brown was overjoyed to be met with cheers at the first-ever WBC Women’s Summit on Wednesday in Las Vegas. After defeating then-titleholder Skye Nicolson last month in Australia, Brown was formally honored with the WBC featherweight women’s title at the Orleans Hotel & Casino on Thursday.

Brown traveled nearly 10,000 miles to Sydney Olympic Park to defeat the Aussie Nicolson last month via split decision in the co-main event of the card headlined by George Kambosos Jnr-Jake Wyllie.

The win catapulted Brown, 19-0 (11 KOs), from obscurity to possibly the best titleholder in her division after she defeated its most distinguished titlist. So Brown almost wasn’t ready for the champion’s welcome she received at the WBC event.

“I got a standing ovation when I walked into the room and I just feel so blessed because most of the girls who are here, the WBC champions, I look up to them,” Brown told BoxingScene. “I don't miss a fight. I watch all of their fights on TV. When I walked in the room, I saw most of them are here.”

Brown, a 36-year-old from Lehigh Acres, Florida, was particularly moved  by receiving the honor directly from the hands of one of her idols, Laila Ali.

“I knew she was going to be here because I read the itinerary, but to be called on stage and Laila Ali awarding me my WBC belt – I will never forget this,” Brown said. “I looked up to Laila as a young kid, as well as Christy Martin. It's just amazing to be in the same presence of these GOATs.”

It was a different experience than the fight lead-up, during which Brown, who calls herself “a patriot,” says she knew a lot of Americans were backing the 29-year-old Nicolson.

“I was on Team USA, I was a police officer for seven and a half years,” Brown said. “So that was hurtful to see a lot of Americans cheer for her. And at the same time, on Twitter [now X] for the past two years, Skye just talked bad about me. She said I never accomplished anything in the sport of boxing.”

Brown was the only gold medal winner among her USA Boxing peers at the 2012 Women's World Championships in China, who included Franchon Crews-Dezurn, Claressa Shields, Raquel Miller, Mikaela Mayer and Marlen Esparza. It was never far from Brown’s mind when Nicolson commented about her on the internet.

“When she said I have never accomplished anything important in my career, it was extremely hurtful – and it was more hurtful that people believed it and they didn't go check my resume,” Brown said. “They just believed all the bad things that she said about me for the past few years, on Twitter and every podcast.

“So when I saw her face-to-face, I stood on business and a lot of people criticized me for the two face-offs and that I didn't shake her hand at the face-off. And, actually, the day before, at our first face-off, I did shake her hand. I was very respectful to her.”

Brown was vocal at one pre-fight press conference and confrontational at the weigh-in. She was intense. Many fans online criticized her, but she considers the reaction to be a double-standard.

“This is boxing, and we have to sell a fight, and so I think I'm getting really bad feedback from a lot of people who don't understand,” Brown said. “Men fight that way at face-offs. Just a few weeks ago, we saw someone get smacked in the face with an egg at the face-off. You have men that push people off the stages and cuss each other out. But I've been attacked on social media simply because I didn't shake Skye’s hand, because I was selling a fight. I’ve been painted as a villain."

Meanwhile, Nicolson, 12-1 (1 KO), has enjoyed a rapid ascent. An Olympian who has been extremely active since her pro debut in 2022, Nicolson made two title defenses and had been viewed as one of the emerging faces of women’s boxing.

Plenty of title challengers have received less than a fair shake when traveling abroad to face a titlist on their home soil, but Brown was calm when the scores from the Nicolson fight were being announced in the ring.

“When the first judge announced that he had Skye winning, my coach – Ernesto Rodriguez, from Hillcrest Heights in Maryland – he got a little nervous,” Brown said. “I turned around to him, and I said, ‘It's going to be OK because I already talked with God. He has already told me that I am going to go through adversity.’ And those judges, they were the adversity, so I knew that it was going to work out in my favor.”

As for what’s next, Brown said she would like to collect all the belts at featherweight.

“I'm going to sit down with my team and see what's the best way to do that,” she said. “I know I am going to be the WBC champion until I retire. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted this belt and I'm not going to let anybody get it from me. It's just not going to happen.”

Lucas Ketelle is the author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at @BigDogLukie.