The undisputed pound for pound queen of women's boxing returns for another sold-out crowd at the Spectrum in Oslo, where she trounced Anne Sophie Mathis in their rematch last October. She is going for victory #30 overall, and #20 (all consecutive) in major world title bouts. Standing in her way is Klara Svensson, a respected pugilist who currently holds the interim version of the welterweight green belt and is hoping for a trade up to not just the full version but all of the whopping 5 unified straps Brækhus offers into the kitty. Svensson was thrice a medalist in the amateur world championships and her sole professional defeat was to Erica Farias of Argentina, herself a longtime champion who in turn has lost only to Brækhus' nearest rival for the p4p throne, near-universally recognized #2 Delfine Persoon. She is also smack in her prime at 29 years old, in contrast with Mathis, and is arguably the best of Cece's last several opponents. Certainly she is the best native-born Scandinavian (as Brækhus herself, while based in Norway, originally is of Colombian provenance) and perhaps the best Nordic with the only counterargument being Frida Wahlstrom of Finland. You could even say that Svensson is currently established as the clear 3rd-5th best h2h female boxer in Europe, after Brækhus & Persoon to be sure and maybe Wahlstrom and Susi Kentikian. This airs tomorrow afternoon, February 24th, streaming live on internet PPV at www.viaplay.se for 299kr. This equates to about $33 in USD. Full card w/ start times: 2:30pm EST - Alexander Hagen vs. Jarón Benjamin Transfeld, 6 rounds @ light heavyweight 3:10pm EST - Kai Robin Havnå vs. Lars Buchholz, 6 rounds @ cruiserweight 3:50pm EST - Tim Robin Lihaug vs. Tomas Adamek, 8 rounds @ super middleweight 5pm EST - Cecilia Brækhus vs. Klara Svensson, 10x2" rounds @ welterweight
I can see the Norwegians making a clean 4-0 sweep of the foreigners, but am only really confident in Havnå (and possibly Hagen) to dominate and/or get the KO. Lihaug was beaten from pillar to post by the much smaller and older Abraham without putting up much resistance, and his Czech journeyman foe is as noted for his toughness as he is for his name's similarity to another tough (but slightly better) fighter hailing from Poland. As for Svensson, there was the knockdown scored by Farias in the 5th of their encounter but the Swede recovered from it well and fought back gamely.
