The Radisson Blu Hotel in Denmark hosts a boxing card this Saturday night featuring women’s pound for pound #1 fighter Cecilia Braekhus defends her unified WBA, WBO, WBC and IBF WOrld Female Welterweight titles when she takes on Jennifer Retzke of Germany. Right now, only a few of the books are carrying a line, and it features Braekhus a massive (-10000) favorite over Retzke, who returns at (+1400).
Braekhus has held a piece of the world title at welterweight since her March of 2009 win over Vinni Skovgaard netted her the vacant WBA and WBC titles. She has made 15 straight defense of the title, adding the WBO title in May of 2010 and completing the task of unification in her last outing when she defeated Ivana Habazin for the IBF version of the belt.
Retzke is a tough and experienced (15-1-1) fighter who is going to be at a speed and skill disadvantage in this fight. Retzke has 9 stoppages giving her a better than 50% KO percentage, and that may be her best chance in the fight is to break through and land something big. Retzke got to Denmark and she took issue with Braekhus, who reportedly refused to take a picture with Retzke for her sponsors. Retzke proceeded to no-show a few subsequent appearances, and she and her camp have tossed the word ‘diva’ around referencing Braekhus. Braekhus took the high road, saving her talking for the ring.
Overall, Braekhus conducts herself like #1 in the world, and she is confident that she will be able to show her skill advantage. Retzke may try to make it an ugly fight, as she is thicker and stockier than Braekhus, but Braekhus is going into her 4th fight under well respected German instructor Otto Ramin. In the press leading up to the fight, Braekhus went so far as to predict an early KO in the fight.
Cecilia Braekhus is considered the number one female fighter in the world today. Any chance to see her in action is worth it, as it will serve as a strong confirmation of how far along the sport of women’s boxing has come over the years.
Check out Cecilia Braekhus’ November 2010 win over Eva Halasi.
