Women’s IBF lightweight champion Elif Nur Turhan has signed with Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions, joining a growing roster of elite women’s fighters at the promotional company that now holds the prospect of staging some of the biggest unification bouts in the division.
Nur Turhan, who carries a 14-0 record with eight knockouts, becomes the second fighter to join MVP from Matchroom Boxing under a recently announced strategic alliance between the two promotional organizations. Australian featherweight champion Skye Nicolson moved to MVP earlier under the same arrangement.
The Turkish champion’s most significant victory came in December when she stopped the previously undefeated Olympic gold medalist Beatriz Ferreira in the fifth round in Monaco to capture her first world title. The performance established her as one of the more dangerous fighters in the lightweight division and demonstrated the kind of punching power that promoters highlight when discussing her commercial appeal.
What the signing means for women’s boxing
Nur Turhan joins a lightweight division at the promotion that already includes unified WBO and WBC lightweight champion Caroline Dubois and WBA lightweight champion Stephani Han. With three champions from four major sanctioning bodies now under the same promotional umbrella, unification fights that would have previously required complex cross-promotional negotiations become significantly more achievable.
That is the context in which Co-founder Nakisa Bidarian framed the signing, describing it as an opportunity to make some of the most exciting fights in boxing. He called Nur Turhan an undefeated world champion with immense punching power and a pressure-heavy aggressive style, and noted her historical significance as the first Turkish fighter to join the roster.
Both MVP and Matchroom said they would work together to support Nur Turhan through the next phase of her career.
Nur Turhan described the signing as a major signal for women’s boxing globally and expressed enthusiasm about the collaboration between what she called the world’s two largest boxing promotion companies.
The alliance between MVP and Matchroom
The strategic alliance that brought Nur Turhan and Nicolson to MVP represents a consolidation of promotional power in the women’s boxing market. MVP, built around Paul’s boxing career and his co-founders’ business infrastructure, has invested heavily in women’s boxing as a distinct product rather than an undercard attraction. Matchroom, led by promoter Eddie Hearn, has long maintained a significant women’s boxing roster and has co-promoted some of the highest-profile women’s fights of recent years.
The combination of their rosters, their media relationships and their combined platform puts them in a position to present the most significant matchups in women’s boxing without the competitive barriers that have historically delayed the biggest women’s fights.
The weight class landscape
The lightweight division at 135 pounds has become one of the more competitive weight classes in women’s boxing in recent years, with multiple talented champions and a fighter pool deep enough to support several high-profile matchups. Dubois’s unified WBO and WBC status, Han’s WBA belt and Nur Turhan’s IBF title represent three of the four major championship lineages in the same promotional arrangement.
Nur Turhan, who is 31 years old, is at an age where the opportunity to participate in the biggest fights of her career is most acute. Her move to the promotion gives her the infrastructure to pursue those fights in the coming years while the MVP-Matchroom alliance provides the framework to make them commercially viable events.
Her record of 14 wins without a defeat and eight stoppages, combined with the Ferreira knockout against a previously unbeaten Olympic champion, positions her as one of the more credible champions in the division.
