Tiara Brown has maintained her underdog mentality despite her current titleholder status.
The reigning WBC featherweight titlist will make her first defense against Emma Gongora this Saturday on DAZN from the Bayou Music Center in Houston. Brown, 19-0 (11 KOs), is an overwhelming favorite to win but prefers to enter each fight as if she has something to take from her opponent.
That drive led to the biggest win of her career, in her last fight when the 37-year-old Florida native dethroned then-unbeaten WBC 126lbs titlist Skye Nicolson. Brown traveled to Australia and fought well enough to earn a split decision victory on the road.
It was a full circle moment for Brown, who spent years calling out all titleholders in and near her weight clash.
In preparation for this upcoming title defense, Brown took note of what Terence “Bud” Crawford was able to accomplish this past weekend. Crawford spent much of his career in pursuit of legacy defining fights but was often shunned by the opposition - and the industry.
That has changed in a big way the past couple of years. Big wins over Errol Spence and Alvarez have left Crawford as the only ever male three-division undisputed champion in the multi-belt era.
Brown, who trains in Hillcrest Heights, Maryland, with Ernesto Rodriguez and Roger Taylor III, recalls how she has watched Crawford Alvarez. Furthermore, how much she related to the doubts people had about Crawford being effective moving up two weight classes to face a distinguished titleholder.
“It was like the world didn’t believe in me either, but I believed in me, my coaches believed in me, my family believed in me,” Brown told BoxingScene. “That’s how I felt leading up to the Skye Nicolson fight.”
Gongora, 10-3-1 (1 KO) and a 32-year-old from Marseille, France, is unbeaten in her last four fights. Her last loss came in 2023 against Carolin Veyre, who is the WBC mandatory challenger and who has been calling out Brown.
“All my life I have been calling people out, trying to show people, just like Terence Crawford, to show the world that I can,” Brown said. “Now, these same people that said I am nobody, I am nothing, I’m irrelevant, those are the same people who are calling me out.”
Brown explained her preparation for this camp.
“This camp, I think I trained even harder than when I was training to fight Skye for the belt,” Brown said. “Although I have the belt now, I am training as if I don’t.”
Brown spent most of her career as an underdog despite a deep amateur pedigree and unbeaten record. Even with the title she coveted, Brown has lost sight of the demeanor that got her to this point.
“I don’t think I will lose the underdog mentality, because for all of my life I have been the underdog,” Brown said. “Even as a champion, I still feel like the underdog.”
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.
