By Erik Schmidt: Undefeated Cecilia Braekhus (11-0, 2 KOs) defeated Vinni Skovgaard (7-1, 3 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision on Saturday night to pick up the to pick up the vacant WBA and WBC female welterweight titles on the undercard of the IBF middleweight clash between Arthur Abraham and Lajuan Simon at the Ostseehalle, Kiel, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The final judges’ scores were 98-92, 96-94 and 96-94.
Braekhus, 27, originally from Cartagena, Colombia and now living in Bergen, Norway, used a combination of movement and speedy combinations to edge the hard punching Skovgaard through 12 hotly contested rounds. Braekhus was forced to move pretty much throughout the fight, for whenever she would stand in any one place for long, Skovgaard would find her with her hard jab and big power shots.
However, Braekhus’s excellent movement was just what the doctor order, preventing Skovgaard from landing enough of her big shots to come out on top at the end of the tough fight. The constant movement may not have been pretty to watch for the boxing fans in the arena, yet it was effective in getting the win for Braekhus.
In the 1st round, Braekhus came out circling the ring, landing well with her jab and then changing directions. She seemed to understand that being predictable was something that could lead to her getting hurt, and continued to switch directions every so often. Skovgaard, used to fighting opponents that stand directly in front of her, she wasn’t able to handle the frequent movement from Braekhus or her blazing fast hand speed.
In the 2nd and 3rd rounds, Braekhus continued giving Skovgaard problems with her movements and speedy combinations. Skovgaard’s fast began reddening and swelling on the left side starting in the 3rd. Braekhus’s jabs were causing a lot of damage to her fast. At the same time, Skovgaard began to find success landing her own jabs, which were like a mini power punch. When she would land her jab, often times it would snap Braekhus’ head back violently.
At the start of the 4th round, Skovgaard landed a powerful jab, snapping Braekhus’ head back. Skovgaard would later land some huge right hands catching Braekhus when she was coming in to land her usual short flurries. Skovgaard still wasn’t having much success in predicting where and when Braekhus would make her attacks, and had to settle for landing a shot whenever she could.
Braekhus constant movement began to have an effect on her starting in the 5th, as she was now looking more tired, having even less power on her weak shots and getting caught more frequently by Skovgaard. After getting hit more than she was used to by Skovgaard in the 5th, Braekhus stepped up the pace of her movement in the 6th. However, she was still getting caught over and over again as Skovgaard would cut off her avenue of retreat and then tagging her with big right hands and jabs.
In rounds even through ten, Braekhus was now reduced to throwing arm punches as she was now running on fumes. She was still able to keep up her constant movement but you could see from her body language that she was quite tired.
If she had more power, I assume her handlers would allow her to plant her feet and trade more but it looks as if her marching orders were to stay on the move and minimize exchanges. In the 10th, Skovgaard caught her often and landed some really big shots. However, by then, Braekhus had the fight well in control and could afford to lose a round.