Finally Official: Cecilia Braekhus versus Jessica McCaskill in August
By David A. Avila and Felipe Leon
A fuse has been lit for one of the most explosive fights of the year as welterweight champion Cecilia “First Lady” Braekhus meets super lightweight champion Jessica “CasKilla” McCaskill for the welterweight title later this summer.
It just might be the best Fight of the Year candidate for any gender.
Undefeated Braekhus (36-0, 9 KOs) puts up her many welterweight titles when she meets Chicago’s McCaskill (8-2, 3 KOs) on Aug. 15, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. DAZN will stream the Matchroom Boxing fight card at a site yet to be revealed.
Norway’s Braekhus, a boxer-puncher now training in Big Bear with Abel Sanchez, hopes to move on and meet the winner between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano if that fight takes place. Beating McCaskill is the only way to proceed and she has designs of her own including a rematch with Taylor or fighting Serrano.
McCaskill expects Braekhus to take advantage of her strengths.
“I expect her to come forward, with her fighting me. She will want to make sure she puts a stamp on anything that she does,” McCaskill, 35, said to www.thePrizefighter.com back in April.
Braekhus, 38, has been working in Big Bear with Sanchez learning the offensive-minded “Mexican Style” he taught to former middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. She has been working in the mountain training camp since the beginning of the year but was forced to stay in the U.S. after the pandemic froze international traveling.
“I came here at the end of January,” Braekhus said with a laugh in an exclusive interview with the 2-Minute Round podcast. “It has been a couple of months now but I am not complaining. There are worse places you can be under these circumstances. There isn’t a lot of people up here and also the nature and the mountains remind me of home.”
The undefeated Norwegian fighter considered the best female fighter pound for pound by many boxing publications, said to expect a very explosive fight, especially under her new trainer Sanchez.
“I would say he is just making my arsenal bigger and definitely a more aggressive fighter because he knows I have it in me,” said Braekhus who will be fighting for only the second time with Sanchez. “I also think I have it in me, to be a fighter that is technical but can knockout my opponents. To be a more aggressive fighter to be looking for the knockout in every round.”
According to Rick Ramos, trainer and manager for McCaskill, said this is the second offer to meet Braekhus. The first offer took place on the last HBO card on December 2018. They declined but feel ready now for the mighty Braekhus.
“We plan to upset her,” Ramos said of their pending fight against Braekhus. “A victory over Cecilia would put Jessica, in my opinion, in the female boxing Hall of Fame for sure and that is what we are gunning for.”
Braekhus and McCaskill both expect their greatest test in August.
(Photo by The Prizefighters.com)