Cecilia Brækhus (25-0, 7 KOs) successfully defended her WBC, WBO & WBA Female World Welterweight titles with a unanimous points victory over Jessica Balogun (24-4, 12 KOs) at the Sport and Congress Center in Schwerin, Germany last night.
Balogun proved a tough opponent but was ultimately outclassed by Brækhus. The judges scored the fight 100-90, 99-91 and 98-92 all in favour of the pound-for-pound number one.
‘’It was a tough fight, but I expected that. Jessica is one of the toughest fighters around,’’ said Brækhus. ‘’All in all I was pleased with my performance. We had been working on some new things in the gym, improving my footwork and movement, and I think that showed tonight. Of course there are always things I feel I could have done better. But I am very happy!’’
Said Balogun: ‘’Cecilia is great fighter. She has very good technique. I think I focused too much on the knock out and forgot about my own technique, and that’s where in went wrong for me. But I would love to fight her again!’’
Following her second victory over Balogun, Brækhus is now looking to clean up the division and add the IBF crown to her impressive haul of titles.
‘’I would like to fight for the IBF belt next,’’ said Brækhus. ‘’I already hold the WBC, WBA & WBO titles and now I want to unify the division and become the first female fighter to hold all four belts.’’
Brækhus also admits she would willing to move up or down in weight in order to cement her legacy as the pound-for-pound queen.
‘’I want to fight the best there is. If that means moving up or down in weight to fight other champions then so be it. I am ready for the challenge.’’
Said promoter Nisse Sauerland: ‘’It was a good fight and a good win for Cecilia. Credit to Balogun, she is tough lady and gave Cecilia another ten hard rounds. There are still lots of options available to Cecilia and we will be sitting down in the coming weeks to discuss what’s next for the ‘’First Lady’’.’’
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.
