New Zealand’s smallest professional boxer has secured a world title eliminator in the atomweight division in Auckland later this month.
Emma ‘Little Miss’ Nesbitt (Ngāti Kahu, Te Rarawa), 21, has punched her way into the World Boxing Association (WBA) world title eliminator. A win would put her in line to fight for the WBA atomweight world title.
She will compete against 31-year-old Japanese boxer Madoka Wada, with the winner set to move closer to a world title opportunity.
Nesbitt says she is still in disbelief at being so close to gaining a world title shot.
“It’s sort of like living in a movie,” she says.
“It hasn’t quite set in yet, but it will, and until then I’m still going to train as if it’s tomorrow”.
From martial arts to professional boxing
Although she is only three years into her professional boxing career, Nesbitt says martial arts, including kickboxing, Muay Thai, and judo, have been part of her life since she was 5 years old.
“My dad - he started me and my two sisters really young.”
“He thought it was good for us girls to grow up with confidence and be able to defend ourselves, and then it sort of just went from there.”
She made her professional boxing debut in June 2023, suffering her only loss to fighter Holly McMath. Since then, she has won the WBA Oceania titles in the light flyweight and minimumweight divisions. Of her 12 wins, nine have come by knockout.
Training at Peach Boxing ahead of WBA eliminator
Nesbitt is training under former professional boxer Isaac Peach at his renowned club Peach Boxing, the Auckland gym that has helped develop world-level fighters, including Mea Motu.
Peach says the weeks leading up to the event will be gruelling for Nesbitt.
“We have big goals in this gym, and world titles are the goal. She’s won fight-offs, so you’re proud of them, but the job’s not done.
“She’s got two fights to win to achieve the goal”, he says.
The smallest division for NZ’s smallest fighter
CSN and BX-9 managing director, Oz Jabur, confirmed to Te Ao Māori News that Nesbitt is recorded as the smallest boxer from New Zealand to compete professionally, as well as the first New Zealand female fighter to take on the atomweight division.
Atomweight is the smallest professional boxing division for contenders who weigh in at 46.3kg or less.
If Nesbitt wins against the eliminator and goes on to claim the world title, she would sit among New Zealand’s greatest boxers as the fourth woman and fourth Māori boxer to hold a major world title.
Jabur says the event, which will take place at EventFinda Stadium on Auckland’s North Shore, is different from previous bouts held in New Zealand.
“To have two active world-ranked contenders competing in New Zealand with a direct pathway to a WBA world title fight is incredibly significant. Emma has achieved something remarkable at just 21 years of age, and Madoka brings elite international credentials and knockout power. This is a genuine world-class matchup,” he says.
The event will be broadcast live on PPV and CSN on 31 July 2026.
