Cecilia Braekhus (20-0, 5 KOs) defended her WBA/WBC/WBO Female Welterweight Titles at the Nordic Fight Night in Herning, Denmark on Saturday night, beating highly-rated Jessica Balogun (22-2, 10 KOs) on points. The First Lady was ahead 99-92, 97-93 and 97-93 on the scorecards. “Jessica was a tough opponent, we knew each other very well, but I did what we had trained for and I am happy about the win,” Braekhus said. “This was a good victory for me.”
Braekhus stamped her authority on the battle early, landing good one-two combinations and uppercuts. Balogun kept pressing but had most attacks absorbed by the First Lady´s defense. In the later rounds, Braekhus turned it on again and showed her superior boxing skills as she cruised to a clear points victory. “This was a great performance against a very tough challenger,” promoter Nisse Sauerland said. “Now Cecilia will go on vacation, take a rest and then defend her title collection against the winner of the Holm-Mathis fight in what will be the female clash of the year.”
Also in Herning, IBF Light Heavyweight Title contender Karo Murat clinched a seventh-round TKO victory over Sandro Siproshvili, while Luke Blackledge scored a fourth-round KO win over Mads Larsen. Ahmad Kaddour defeated Gary Boulden on points. Reda Zam Zam showed his skills against Giuseppe Langella before the Italian injured his ankle (TKO3). Up-and-coming Swedish light heavyweight Erik Skoglund knocked out Fouad Nasri, and Torben Keller´s fight against Luca Arrigo ended in a draw.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
