Last weekend, Ellie Scotney flew across the Irish Sea to watch her friend, Robbie Davies Jnr beat Javier Fortuna in Belfast.

Next weekend you might bump into the IBF and WBO super bantamweight champion at the York Hall or at an amateur club show.

As much as Scotney loves boxing, the novelty of turning up to shows as a supporter as opposed to turning up to fight is beginning to wear thin. There are certain contests she’s more invested in than others, however.

“When I'm watching a friend or someone like Robbie, I'm a nervous wreck. It makes me feel ill so, in that moment, and when they win, it's mad,” Scotney, 9-0, told BoxingScene.

“Second hand happiness is mental, isn't it? The feeling you get is insane so when I go to nights like that, it takes my mind off that I’m not boxing and it doesn’t enter my head so going there helps me.

“But when you go to a casual show or you watch one on TV though…”

Scotney hates waiting, she just wants to fight. Unfortunately, she has had to get used to not doing so. 

She has boxed only nine times since turning professional four years ago and just when it looked like she would finally get the chance to capitalize on the momentum she created by collecting another super bantamweight division against Segolene Lefebvre in April, bad luck struck. 

No sooner had she been given a date for a mandatory defense of her titles against New Zealand’s tough Mea Motu, than a calf injury forced her out of the gym.

Desperate to fight and unsure as to just how long she would need to wait for a new date, Scotney agonized over withdrawing but eventually had to accept that this isn’t the time for risks. 

Hopes that the fight could be rescheduled quickly evaporated and Scotney has had to take a ticket and join the back of the queue. 

“I couldn’t watch the Manchester show I was supposed to have been on,” she said. “I went out the house and turned my phone off for a couple of days. It's sickening when you're having to watch it and I'm a massive boxing fan. So the fact it's brought me to that point, it's worrying at times.”

It would be tragic if boxing politics ground down the Londoner’s enthusiasm.

Scotney is one of the purest fighters in British boxing. She lives for the sport but, even if it is something as simple as the Mars bar and Ribena she received for first following her brother to the gym, she also loves the idea of being rewarded for her efforts.  

Yes, she has unified two super bantamweight titles within nine fights but outside of the streets surrounding her home in Catford, her efforts go largely unrecognized.

When Scotney talks about getting her just deserts she isn’t only talking about bigger paychecks.

Yes, money is important for a 26-year-old attempting to build a life outside the sport but that would come hand in hand with the activity and opportunities that Scotney believes her achievements deserve.

Scotney hasn’t been brought up to complain and pestering and nagging don’t sit well with her but she has realized that, from now on, she is going to have to be more assertive. 

After all, if you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always got. 

“It’s more like I feel I’ve accomplished the pressure goals. I’ve done some of the things I felt I should do when I turned over,” she said.

“I just think that for what I've got, everything else doesn't seem to match up. 

“My last fight, for instance, I come out of that fight and - hand on my heart - I can tell you I haven't ever had that sort of feeling. That's probably the happiest I've ever been. You think ‘This is it, this will be the turning point for me.’

“I know humble Ellie has always been the Ellie but from now on, I’ve not exactly gotta get a chip on my shoulder but I’ve gotta be more demanding, I guess.

“All the work you've put in over the years, you reap what you sow and I'm just like, ‘Hang on a minute, when's that bit coming?’ That's kind of where we're at.” 

Scotney will readily admit that she could have pushed her own cause a little harder at times but, maybe naively, she believed that actions would speak louder than words. 

Outside of the ring, Scotney is one of the most popular fighters in British boxing but when she turned professional she didn’t do so with the intention of becoming famous or talking her way to the top.

Scotney never benefited from the kind of regular routine wins that other prospects get where a good piece of matchmaking can make a fighter look spectacular and provide them with much needed camera time. 

Instead, Scotney has been fighting hardened former or existing world champions since her fourth fight. It is hard to criticize an approach which has seen her accomplish her childhood dreams but it hasn’t opened the doors she hoped it would. 

Scotney falls back in love with the sport once she signs a contract to fight but, while waiting to do so, hates business outside of the ropes. 

“I feel like your boxing style can sometimes represent who you are and I feel like I can kind of do that in a good way.

“Because I’ve always stayed true to myself, I'd never question any decision or the way I go about things but that bit, I've never understood. I feel like I've done everything right. I could go to a show and talk to anyone and everyone like I’ve known them forever and I'm just like, ‘Hang on a minute, what's the missing part that no one wants to push?’ I think I'm missing that part.”

Frustratingly, she has no real idea why she hasn’t been pushed more. 

“No, I wish I did because if you knew, you would change it, wouldn't you? But I feel like when I look back, it's probably been the pattern of my career from the get-go.

“I've always had to earn the recognition. I've always took the harder fights because that was more their selling point if that makes any sense.”

In female boxing, the big names transcend the sport. A promising female fighter can collect an armful of title belts and put together a long unbeaten run but in order to make people really sit up and take notice, they need to take one of those prized scalps

As a super bantamweight, Scotney doesn’t have the same kind of star making opponents as the women fighting 15lbs up the weight scale and - Mea Motu apart - nobody seems keen on calling her name.

However, she is within touching distance of two fighters who would provide her with the challenges and platform she is desperate for.

Multi-weight world champion, Amanda Serrano, is a giant of the sport and WBC featherweight title holder, Skye Nicolson, has been developed into a major name. 

Given the choice, going up in weight and earning her respect is exactly the way Scotney would choose to do it. 

All she wants is the opportunity. 

“Obviously, I've got my mandatory next and everything starts with that. I’m treating the fight with Motu as the most important of my career. If I want to move on, I have to beat her. I want to put in a good performance and make sure I stay in people’s memories from now on,” Scotney said.

“After that I want to unify. Then go undisputed. Go Mercado [the WBC champion] and then Romero [the WBA title holder], then up to featherweight. That would be my ideal plan but if I box Motu and then the unification is hard to deal with, I'll be moving up and chasing the champions at featherweight whether that's Skye or Serrano. 100 per cent,” she said.

"They're the type of big fights where people will take notice and with that comes money, recognition and being a two-weight world champion.

“You've got to recognise the big name girls. It's almost as if their names themselves are world titles because we know in female boxing that world title fights can come very quickly.

“Unifying will make you break out a bit. Become undisputed and you’re recognised but the bigger fights with the big girls, sometimes they make more sense than the titles. It’s like you just need the name to kind of get the worth financially and to be noticed as a breakout.”