Mikaela Laurén (born 20 January 1976) is a Swedish

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 national team

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

. In boxing she held the WBC female

light middleweight Light middleweight, also known as junior middleweight or super welterweight,PeBoxRec/ref> is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing The light middleweight division (also known as junior middleweight in the IBF or super welterweight in the WBA ...

title from 2014 to 2016, and has challenged once for the undisputed 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 ...

championship in 2017. As of September 2020, she is ranked as the world's fourth best active light-middleweight by ''The Ring'' and seventh by

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 profe ...

Early life

Laurén grew up in Enskede in southern Stockholm. She started swimming at the age of three and trained with the Stockholm police sports association. At the age of eighteen she moved to the United States, there she was recruited by the

University of Nebraska–Lincoln The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a public land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the Morrill Act of 1862, the school was known as the Univer ...

. During her stay in the country she decided to tattoo the text "Destiny" on her lower back, at the same time that her best friend, swimmer

Therese Alshammar Malin Therese Alshammar (born 26 August 1977) is a Swedish swimmer who has won three Olympic medals, 25 World Championship medals, and 43 European Championship medals. She is a specialist in short distances races in freestyle and butterfly. She ...

, tattooed the text "Diva" at the same spot on her body. In 2001 Laurén returned to Sweden and continued her preparation for the 2004 Summer Olympics in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh List ...

. In March 2005, she was arrested for having anabolic steroids in her home. She was sentenced to one year and two months imprisonment for doping and weapon crimes. She served her sentence until her release in May 2006. During her imprisonment she studied nutrition and training at the Mittuniversity in

Östersund Östersund (; sma, Staare) is an urban area (city) in Jämtland in the middle of Sweden. It is the seat of Östersund Municipality and the capital of Jämtland County. Östersund is located at the shores of Sweden's fifth-largest lake, Storsjön ...

. She also continued physio and lead the training for the inmates at the prison. After her release she educated herself to become a personal trainer, she decided to return to

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...

in the United States to start her work in becoming a professional boxer. Laurén competed in the celebrity dance show Let's Dance 2017 which is broadcast on TV4. She was the first dancer to be eliminated.

Professional boxing career

Laurén signed a contract with New Sweden in May 2007 and made her professional debut in April 2009. On 24 September 2010 she defeated Jill Emery via unanimous decision. On 30 October 2010, Mikaela met the boxer

Cecilia Brækhus Cecilia Carmen Linda Brækhus (born 28 September 1981) is a Norwegian professional boxer and former kickboxer. In boxing she reigned as the undisputed female welterweight champion from 2014 to 2020, and is the first woman in any weight class to h ...

in a match in Germany where she lost on technical knockout in the seventh round. She has made 36 professional matches and won 31 of them. On 8 November 2014 she won the WBC title in superwelter weight against the American boxer Aleksandra Magdaziak.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Living people 1975 births Swedish female swimmers Swedish women boxers Boxers from Stockholm Swimmers from Stockholm SK Neptun swimmers World Boxing Council champions Welterweight boxers Light-middleweight boxers Middleweight boxers World light-middleweight boxing champions