BOXING
Cecilia Braekhus withdraws from Katie Taylor undercard bout
The legendary Colombian-Norwegian former champion sees her step up to Light Middleweight dashed as Braekhus comes down with the flu.
Just a day after the weigh in for the Katie Taylor vs Chantelle Cameron fight, Cecilia Braekhus has announced that she has had to withdraw from her undercard fight after waking up with flu-like symptoms.
Releasing a video on social media, Braekhus said, “Just woke up this morning with the flu. Headache, fever, ear, nose, throat, the whole thing. I felt great yesterday at the weigh-in. Just heartbroken. Gutted for Terri Harper, of course. Sorry to all my fans. Still want to thank Matchroom and Terri for giving me this chance to fight her. I hope we can come back and do this real soon.”
Braekhus is a legend in women’s boxing, having reigned as the undisputed female welterweight champion from 2014 to 2020. She is the first woman in any weight class to hold the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO titles simultaneously, and when she took the IBO title in 2016, she became the first boxer ever, either male or female, to hold five world titles from sanctioning bodies simultaneously.
Due to challenge Terri Harper for her Light Middleweight belt on the undercard in Dublin, Braekhus’ withdrawal now sees Harper move to a defense on the Mauricio Lara-Leigh Wood card in Manchester Arena next week. Her opponent is yet to be confirmed.
The undercard in Dublin will now feature five bouts instead of six before the main event. As it stands, the full fight card looks like this:
- Katie Taylor vs Chantelle Cameron [WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, IBO, and The Ring light-welterweight titles]
- Dennis Hogan vs JJ Metcalf [IBO super-welterweight title]
- Gary Cully vs Jose Felix [lightweight]
- Caoimhin Agyarko vs Grant Dennis [light middleweight]
- Thomas Carty vs Jay McFarlane [heavyweight]
- Maisey Rose Courtney vs Kate Radomska [flyweight]