Before making the trip from Florida to Sydney for her first world title bout against Skye Nicolson last month, Tiara Brown wasn’t just preparing for a fight, but a flight. And if anyone has ever made that trip down under from the east coast of the United States, it ain’t easy.

Brown estimated that she would try to get plenty of rest and read a book on her way to the biggest fight of her life. So, what did she do on that horrific flight?

“I got through two books and I got through all of the John Wicks,” laughed Brown, who was certainly in a mood for war once she touched down in Australia after four high-impact action films. And like Keanu Reeves’ iconic Wick, aka Baba Yaga, Brown left the scene with her hand raised, defeating Nicolson via split decision for the WBC featherweight title.

But the victory wasn’t without some drama, especially after ring announcer David Diamante read judge Nobuto Ikehara’s score of 96-94 for Nicolson.

“It’s okay,” Brown told her coach, Ernesto Rodriguez, who was worried about losing a decision in Australia to the Australian champion. Brown wasn’t worried, though.

“I was just filled with so much confidence,” she said. “I had plenty of talks with God and meditation throughout the entire camp. I had no worries. I just knew that it was going to be for me. Going into the fight, I knew that there was going to be adversity. I'm fighting the champion. She's Australian. We're in Australia. I knew there was going to be adversity, but I knew that God told me to stand firm, and that's what I did. I just stood on my faith.”

96-94 Brown.

97-93 for the winner, and the new…

“I felt like everything I've worked for my whole life, it's coming to pass in present time,” said the 19-0 Brown, a former amateur star who fought long and hard to get a shot at a world title. When her moment came, she pounced on it, which is a lot easier said than done. And with all the odds against her, she fought her fight and got the result she earned.

“I think that I've dealt with so much adversity throughout my entire life, in and out of the ring, that I think I'm just built for this,” said the 36-year-old former police officer. “I knew that each stone had to be turned over. I knew that any slight mistake, I'm not going to get it. I knew that if at any moment there was hesitation, if at any moment there was doubt, I wasn't going to win. And so, therefore, the entire camp, there was never a moment where I allowed doubt to play in my mind. Every single day, I would say to myself, and I would say it out loud, ‘And the new.’ I would just keep saying it different ways. I never once allowed my brain to say, ‘And still.’ Because once you doubt yourself, it sparks fear. It just does. We're afraid of the dark, right? But then we turn on the lights and there's nothing there. There was never anything there. But you're afraid.”

Brown obviously has the physical part of the sport down pat. But it was her mental game that carried her through those 10 rounds in Sydney. And though it was a closely contested fight, she made sure she did a little bit more in order to leave no doubt who the winner was. And, for a change, boxing got it right. It was a satisfying win, one followed by a victory tour of sorts as Brown traveled to Las Vegas earlier this month for the WBC Women’s Summit

“Just being there with so many pioneers of the sport, women that I watched when I was 13 years old, it meant a lot of me,” she said. “It was the best time of my life. I've had great accomplishments my entire life, but that moment was just incredible. I feel like a kid at Disney World.”

There were also cookies and donuts from the people from her church, but after coming home to Florida, she was back in the gym in two days

“Yeah, my coach yelled at me something good,” Brown laughs. “He told me to take three weeks off. But, to me, it's like, ‘Three weeks, what am I going to do?”

She can bask in the glory of finally reaching the mountaintop in her career, and the boxing world has embraced her after years of not doing so, and that’s got to be satisfying. As for her rivalry with Nicolson, which got heated at times, it sounds like Brown still hasn’t let go some of the things said before the fight.

“In all honesty, I just thought she was going to give me more because for two years she downed me,” said Brown. “She just talked so down on me for two years on social media and on every podcast she could get on, calling me old, saying I've never done anything for the sport of boxing, I'm irrelevant, no one has to talk about me, I'm slow, I've got terrible footwork, she's going to run circles around me. And the day before the fight, she said she's in the best shape that she's ever been in her entire career and she said she's trained the hardest she's ever trained. She told me, I better bring my A game. I better keep the same tenacity. And I told her, you better, because I am. And I just don't think she did. I think that she tried, but my coach, Ernesto Rodriguez, his game plan was flawless. Everything that she does great, we trained for six weeks to take it away, and we did it.”

So will they do it again? Brown says there was no rematch clause in their contract since she was Nicolson’s mandatory, and while that may be where the money is right now, especially with the other big name at featherweight, WBA / WBO / The Ring champion Amanda Serrano, tied up with her third fight against Katie Taylor, the Floridian isn’t being too picky. She simply wants to fight the best.

“I'm at the point in my life where I think Skye feels like I need her, but, for me, I feel like she was the steppingstone,” said Brown. “I feel like God planned out my life this way. I never got anything easy. I never got anything handed to me. We took on the champion in her hometown and used that platform to show the world what I can do. Now, I want to fight the best. Everyone with a belt. I want to go at them. I want to try my hand against the best athletes all-around to prove that I am one of the best. I don't say ‘best’ because I think there's best in every weight class and I think there can be several best at weight classes. That's just my mindset. But I do think I am one of the best featherweights in the world and I just want to show everyone that.”