UPDATED: Cecilia Brækhus, the Norwegian boxer who’s reached the top of her sport despite it being illegal in Norway, was looking for tougher competition after she crushed her latest opponent Mia St John during a fight in Denmark over the weekend.
“I’ll gladly box in another fight in June, but then I have to have a decent opponent,” Brækhus told reporters after she firmly beat St John, a former Playboy model from Oxnard, California.
Mia St John has the nickname “The Knockout:” She had boxed in 61 professional fights (compared to Brækhus’ 21) and won 47 of them, 18 by a knockout. She couldn’t live up to her name against Brækhus, however, who defended her championship titles in relatively short order.
“I saw at once that it would be my fight,” Brækhus said on Sunday after the Saturday night fight in Frederikshavn. “Mia St John would probably have liked to be part of the fight, but after I got in some quick punches, she lost desire.” Brækhus had earlier told Aftenposten that she “can smell it” when an opponent is nervous before a fight.
On Saturday, the title of welterweight champion was at stake in the World Boxing Association, the World Boxing Council and the World Boxing Organization. Fists clenched, the two had weighed in on Friday and St John admitted she feared the 31-year-old Brækhus’ “youthful” enthusiasm. St John is 45, and said Brækhus’ age was “my biggest challenge. She’s in her best age. I’ll have to just box smarter than her.”
She didn’t, and Brækhus was more keen than ever to fight Holly Holm, the top American boxing star whom Brækhus found difficult to get into the ring. Brækhus was later bitterly disappointed when Holm announced she intended to retire from boxing after a scheduled May 11th fight against another opponent, to concentrate on an MMA (mixed martial arts) career.
Holm’s managers staunchly denied Holm, who has been the world’s top-rated female boxed, was afraid of meeting Brækhus, who’d been trying to set up a match with Holm for the past year. Holm claimed she’d had a “fantastic” career but wanted new challenges and Brækhus wasn’t one of them.
Views and News from Norway/Nina Berglund
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