Cecilia Carmen Linda Brækhus (born 28 September 1981) is a Norwegian

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

and former

kickboxer Kickboxing is a combat sport focused on kicking and punching. The combat takes place in a boxing ring, normally with boxing gloves, mouthguards, shorts, and bare feet to favour the use of kicks. Kickboxing is practiced for self-defense, general ...

. In boxing she reigned as the

undisputed Undisputed may refer to: Film * ''Undisputed'' (film), a 2002 action-thriller-drama film ** ''Undisputed'' (soundtrack), the soundtrack to the film * Undisputed II: Last Man Standing, a 2006 American martial arts film * Undisputed III: Redempt ...

female

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify the ...

champion from 2014 to 2020, and is the first woman in any weight class to hold the WBA, WBC,

IBF The International Boxing Federation (IBF) is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) which sanctions professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Counci ...

and WBO titles simultaneously. She is also one of only 11 boxers in history, female or male, to hold all four major world titles simultaneously, along with

Bernard Hopkins Bernard Hopkins Jr. (born January 15, 1965) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2016. He is one of the most successful boxers of the past three decades, having held multiple world championships in two weight class ...

(2004–2005),

Jermain Taylor Jermain Taylor (born August 11, 1978) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2014. He remains the most recent undisputed middleweight champion, having won the WBA (Undisputed), WBC, IBF, WBO, ''Ring'' magazine, and ...

(2005),

Terence Crawford Terence Allan Crawford (born September 28, 1987) is an American professional boxer. He has held multiple world championships in three weight classes, including the WBO welterweight title since 2018. Previously he held the WBO and ''Ring'' maga ...

(2017),

Oleksandr Usyk Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Usyk ( uk, Олекса́ндр Олекса́ндрович У́сик; born 17 January 1987) is a Ukrainian professional boxer. He has held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the unified WB ...

(2018–2019),

Claressa Shields Claressa Maria Shields (born March 17, 1995) is an American professional boxer and mixed martial artist. She has held multiple world championships in three weight classes, including the undisputed female light middleweight title since March 2021 ...

(2019–2020, 2021–),

Katie Taylor Katie Taylor (born 2 July 1986) is an Irish professional boxer and former footballer. She is a two-weight world champion and the current undisputed lightweight champion, having held the WBA title since 2017; the IBF title since 2018; and the ...

(2019–),

Jessica McCaskill Jessica McCaskill (born September 8, 1984) is an American professional boxer. She is a world champion in two weight classes, having held the undisputed, IBO, and ''Ring'' female welterweight titles since 2020; the WBC female super lightweight t ...

(2020–),

Josh Taylor Josh or Joshua Taylor may refer to: * Josh Taylor (actor) (born 1943), American comedy and dramatic television actor * Josh Taylor (baseball) (born 1993), American professional baseball pitcher * Josh Taylor (boxer) (born 1991), Scottish profession ...

(2021–), and

Canelo Alvarez __NOTOC__ Canelo may refer to: Geography * Canelo, Arizona, a ghost town ** Canelo Ranger Station ** Canelo School * Canelo Hills in Arizona ** Canelo Hills Cienega Reserve, a protected area People * Canelo Álvarez (born 1990; birth name Santos ...

(2021-),

Devin Haney Devin Miles Haney (; born November 17, 1998) is an American professional boxer. He is the current undisputed lightweight champion, having held the WBC title since 2019 and the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO and ''Ring'' titles since June 2022. As of J ...

(2022-) in 2016, she captured the IBO title, becoming the first ever boxer to hold five world titles from sanctioning bodies simultaneously. In 2017, the

Boxing Writers Association of America The Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) was originally formed in 1926 as the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York. The association's purpose is to promote better working conditions for boxing writers, as well as hold its writers ...

named Brækhus their inaugural Female Fighter of the Year. ''

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

'' awarded her with three recognitions in 2018: the Longest Reigning Female Boxing Champion, the Longest Reign as a Four-Belt Undisputed Boxing Champion, and the Most Bouts Undefeated by a Female World Champion Boxer. As of September 2020, she is ranked as the world's second best active female welterweight by ''The Ring'' and

BoxRec BoxRec or boxrec.com is a website dedicated to holding updated records of professional and amateur boxers, both male and female. It also maintains a MediaWiki-based encyclopaedia of boxing. The objective of the site is to document every profess ...

, and the third best active female,

pound-for-pound Pound for pound is a ranking used in combat sports, such as boxing, wrestling, or mixed martial arts, of who the better fighters are irrespective of their weight, i.e. adjusted to compensate for weight class. As these fighters do not compete direc ...

, by ''The Ring'', fifth by

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

, and sixth

Early life

Born in Cartagena, Colombia, Brækhus was

adopted Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...

as a two-year-old by Norwegian parents and raised in the Sandviken area of

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

.Profile/Blog Blog
at ''TV2blogg.no'' Brækhus started

kickboxing Kickboxing is a combat sports, combat sport focused on kicking and punch (strike), punching. The combat takes place in a boxing ring, normally with boxing gloves, mouthguards, shorts, and bare feet to favour the use of kicks. Kickboxing is pract ...

at the age of fourteen. Brækhus soon began competing in amateur boxing competitions, and achieved an amateur record of 75-5-0 before turning professional.

Kickboxing career (semi-contact)

* 2003 WAKO World Champion, Semi Contact 65 kg * 2002 WAKO Euro Champion, Semi Contact 65 kg * 3 National Championships * 2 H.M. The King's Trophy

Amateur boxing career

Brækhus fought 80 matches and won 75 of them. * Silver medal at the 2005 World Championships * Gold medal at the 2005 European Championships * Silver medal at the 2004 European Championships

Professional boxing career

In November 2007, she signed a pro contract with

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

promoter Wilfried Sauerland, who announced his intention of making her the first Norwegian woman World Champion. Her first fight was against Croatian boxer Ksenija Koprek, 20 January 2007. On 14 March 2009, she became the WBC World Champion in

against

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

boxer Vinni Skovgaard. She also captured the vacant WBA female welterweight title. Brækhus successfully defended her titles on 30 May 2009 against Amy Yuratovac in Helsinki, Finland, and on 12 September 2009 against Lucia Morelli in Herning, Denmark. Cecilia Brækhus 2011

Eight months later, on 15 May 2010, Brækhus successfully defended her WBA and WBC titles against Victoria Cisneros from the United States, while winning the WBO title. The match was fought in Herning, Denmark. In a unanimous decision, the judges declared the fight for Brækhus, having won all 10 rounds. On 30 October 2010, in what was expected to be the hardest match of her career, Brækhus successfully defended her WBA, WBC and WBO titles against Mikaela Laurén from Sweden, while winning the World Professional Boxing Federation (WPBF) title. After Brækhus having dominated the whole match, she knocked Laurén out in the 7th round. The match was fought in Rostock, Germany. In 2010, Brækhus was voted the "Female Boxer of the Year" by German boxing magazine ''BoxSport''. On 14 September 2014, after defeating Croatian Ivana Habazin, Brækhus became the first Norwegian and the first woman to hold all major world championship belts in her weight division (welterweight) in boxing history.

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

broadcast its first women's bout, between Brækhus and Kali Reis, on May 5, 2018, which Brækhus won.🖉

Professional boxing record

References

External links

*
Cecilia Brækhus profile
a
Awakening Fighters
at Women Boxing Archive Network {{DEFAULTSORT:Braekhus, Cecilia 1981 births Living people Norwegian women boxers Colombian emigrants to Norway Norwegian adoptees Sportspeople from Bergen Sportspeople from Cartagena, Colombia Welterweight boxers Norwegian female kickboxers Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Germany World Boxing Association champions World Boxing Council champions International Boxing Federation champions World Boxing Organization champions International Boxing Organization champions Light-welterweight boxers World welterweight boxing champions Norwegian people of Colombian descent