How good is Elif Nur Turhan?

Elif Nur Turhan had an amazing 2025, but the question remains: What is her ceiling as a pro? 

That question could have been answered on January 31, when Turhan, the current IBF belt holder, won a lackluster split decision over Taylah Gentzen. However, in Turhan’s defense, she was defending her title just a little over a month after winning it.

Turhan, 13-0 (8 KOs), had three knockout victories in 2025. She stopped the unbeaten Shauna Browne in less than a minute, went to France to stop the unbeaten Rima Ayadi, and then stopped Beatriz Ferriera, an unbeaten two-time Olympian, in December.

Despite such a huge year, though, opinions are divided on her. Some outlets, including BoxingScene, awarded her “Women’s Boxer of the Year," whereas some outlets did not even nominate her for that award.

Clearly, Turhan, a 30-year-old from Istanbul, Turkey, is a unique fighter. But despite her accomplishments, her reliance on power and, at times, crude craftsmanship, has people split on her potential.

BoxingScene spoke with women’s boxing historian Malissa Smith to get her thoughts on Turhan.

BoxingScene: How good is Elif Nur Turhan? She clearly has power, upset victories, but from a historian’s perspective, where does she stand in the sport?

Malissa Smith: She reminds me a little of Delfine Persson. She comes forward, unrelenting, and kind of wild. Sometimes she can bring it in and look like a boxer. She has very heavy hands, and I think she relies on that. In her fight against Gentzen, she fought someone who was trying to box her, and it was frustrating for her. 

Women are always against it, in the sense of the two-minute vs. three-minute-round nonsense. Part of that is the knockout thing. The fact that Turhan gets knockouts gets people excited because not a lot of women are knockout artists, especially in the earlier rounds. When she took apart Beatriz Ferreira, who was looked at as such a good fighter, it was shocking. That is what really brought her a lot of attention.

She has now decided to be in the lightweight division. I don’t see her being as competitive other than being dangerous.

BS: What is the trajectory of her career? She had a big year last year. Does she have the potential to be a Hall-of-Fame fighter? 

Smith: The fact that she re-signed with Matchroom Boxing, that is going to give her some legs for making some fights. We have Caroline Dubois-Terri Harper in the future, and then there will be the desire for the undisputed title fight. Turhan has the IBF title, so she is going to be in that mix. 

The question is, can her team help her become a little more disciplined in the ring to fight someone like Dubois or Harper? They have many more levels to their game. Dubois has perfect mechanics.

From what I saw, and I watched some footage of [Turhan] before this, she goes in there, it’s not flailing so much, but she is just throwing these overhand rights and overhand lefts. When reviewing her fight on January 31, she just kept missing. She wasn’t even coming into range. She was expending a lot of energy early in the fight. It took her rounds and rounds to settle in.

She is not elite, to me.

BS: She is powerful, and sometimes power can mask some stuff, right?

Smith: If she is against a clever person in the ring, and they know what they are going up against – that fierce power – they are going to have a team that is going to work out the strategies to avoid that power. It gets to a level where it is a chess game, especially against the opponents she is looking to face. She can get lucky, because she is heavy-handed and can knock someone down. She got lucky against Beatriz, who obviously was not prepared for that kind of power and intensity. If she faces Dubois or Harper, they are going to be prepared.