Cecilia Braekhus. An Appreciation

Cecilia Braekhus’s match with Slovenia’s Ema Kozin on Oct. 4 at Lillestrom, Norway, bore the tagline “The Final Bell.” Braekhus announced before the match that this would be her final fight.

By and large, great boxers don’t leave the sport on a winning note. If so, it’s often because they chose a weak opponent for their farewell fight. Ema Kozin, however, was no pushover. She had lost every round in her bout with Claressa Shields, but that was her only setback in 26 contests. At age 26, Kozin was 18 years younger than Braekhus and she held the WBC and WBO world titles at 154 pounds.

Braekhus prevailed, winning by scores of 98-92, 97-93, and 96-94.

Assuming this was her farewell fight and she can subjugate the inevitable itch to return, Cecilia Braekhus leaves the sport with a record of 39-2-1 (9 KOs). But numbers alone hardly attest to her influence.

Braekhus was born in Cartagena, Colombia. At the age of two, she was adopted from a Cartagena orphanage by a Norwegian couple and raised in Bergem, a seaside city on Norway’s west coast.

Like so many female boxers from Europe, Braekhus transitioned to boxing after first attracting notice as a kickboxer. Many of her early fights were in neighboring Denmark for the very good reason that professional boxing was illegal in Norway. The ban dated to 1981 when reformers succeeded in outlawing the sport on the grounds that it was dangerous, lacking the safeguards of amateur boxing, and that violence had no place in a public amusement.

“I want to break down all the stereotypes some people still have about [female] boxing,” said Braekhus in a 2008 interview before she made her U.S. debut in a 6-rounder on a card in Hollywood, Florida. “I like to shop. Wear makeup and look good, but I also like to box. It is my passion.”

Braekhus then had only seven pro fights on her ledger. The following year she won her first title, capturing the vacant WBO welterweight title in Germany with a 10-round decision over an undefeated Dane, Vinni Skougaard.

More titles would follow, an abundance of them. She would go on to become the undisputed champion at 147 pounds, the first woman to become a fully unified title-holder in the four-belt era, predating Claressa Shields.

Her growing fame inspired Norwegian politicians to reconsider the ban against professional boxing. In October of 2013, the ban was lifted. Three years later, Braekhus had her first fight on Norwegian soil. She stopped France’s Anne Sophie Mathis in the second round. The bout was historic on several levels. This was the first widely recognized world title fight in Norway.

Braekhus accomplished many other firsts as her career wended along. Among other things, she was the first female boxer to be featured on an HBO card when she fought Kali Reis on May 5, 2018 at the Stub Hub Center in Carson, California. Braekhus got off the deck to win a unanimous decision. (In the main event, Gennadiy Golovkin knocked out late sub Vanes Martirosyan in the second round.)

A couple of big names are missing from Braekhus’s resume. In 2012 and 2013, there were protracted negotiations between her promoter, German powerhouse Sauerland, and representatives of Albuquerque’s Holly Holm, but nothing came of it. Looking back, a match between these two ladies when both were in their prime would have been a delicious pairing. Braekhus and Holm were born 19 days apart in 1981.

In 2020, Braekhus was headed to a showdown with Irish superstar Katie Taylor. Jessica McCaskill spoiled the soup, saddling the Norwegian with her first defeat. There would be a rematch that McCaskill won by a wider margin. Styles make fights, as they say, and McCaskill’s style was all wrong for Cecilia. Take away McCaskill and, in theory, Braekhus would have retired undefeated.

Despite her advanced age, Braekhus looked good in her farewell fight. “It certainly looked like she had more to give if she continued her career,” wrote ESPN’s Andreas Hale.

Now a multiple belt-holder once again, it may prove hard for Braekhus to resist the urge to keep on fighting a bit longer. Regardless, her legacy is secure.

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