10x2" rounds @ welterweight for the female WBA (21st defense of Brækhus), IBF (7th defense of Brækhus), WBC (22nd defense of Brækhus), IBO (5th defense of Brækhus) and WBO (19th defense of Brækhus) titles. Co-main event to Golovkin vs. Martirosyan on Cinco de Mayo. Funfact: this will be the first ever women's bout to air live on HBO. Reis is a carer middleweight - in fact currently rated the #1 contender by the WBC, making her Christina Hammer's mandatory - and has fought just thrice at the welterweight limit, going 1-1-1 (1) and last making the limit in 2013 in an unsuccessful bid for the WIBA title held then by Tori Nelson. She is 3-4 in world title bouts. She is 5 years Brækhus' junior, is ½" taller, and has never been stopped. Brækhus has long been rated #1 p4p among female boxers in almost every publication that bothers tracking them, and has in a contiguous reign been at least partially unified welterweight champion since 2009. Her plus/minus in points is among the greatest of active boxers irrespective of gender; in eleven consecutive title defenses she has never lost over 2 rounds on any one judge's official scorecard. The last time someone got 3 was Anne Sophie Mathis in their first encounter in 2012 (final array being 97-93 x3 for Brækhus).
Funny how nobody has a problem with a career middleweight vs. a career welterweight in the co-main event, but in the other featured bout a career average-sized middleweight vs. a career large junior middleweight has everyone in an uproar.
For some reason I like those, especially the more of a surface thuggette or hoodrat the girl is. Just screams "freak in the sheets".
Braekhus also has Lucia Rijker in her corner this time. Speaking of which, IB, who would you pick in a hypothetical match-up between prime Rijker and prime Braekhus?
I think both Vanes and Kali will be putting their all into these match-ups to prove they're world class and undeserving of the extremely wide underdog status conferred upon them both. I think both will acquit themselves well in commendably brave performances (although it may end in going out in the mid to late rounds on their respective shields) and make the matches unexpectedly competitive for a time.
