Press Release
Kiev, Ukraine (July 10, 2018) Women’s #1 Pound-for-Pound Fighter in the World and Boxing’s Only Undisputed World Champion, ‘The First Lady’, Cecilia Braekhus, (33-0, 9 KO’s), is spending her final week of training in Kiev, Ukraine ahead of her welterweight world title (WBC, WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO) defense against Undefeated WBC Interim Junior Middleweight Champion Inna ‘The Ice Queen’ Sagaydakovskya, (7-0-0, 3 KO’s), on Saturday, July 21 at the Olympic Stadium in Moscow, Russia.
Braekhus vs. Sagaydakovskya will be the 10-round chief support to the highly anticipated World Boxing Super Series Unification Final between cruiserweight world champions Murat Gassiev of Russia and Alexander Usyk of Ukraine. The event takes place just six days after the final of the World Cup in Moscow.
Braekhus has trained in Kiev since the second week of June under the watchful eye of longtime trainer Johnathon Banks and has been joined by Women’s IBF Junior Middleweight World Champion Chris Namus, Women’s WBC Silver Middleweight Champion Hannah Rankin and junior middleweight contender Dominique Dolton for sparring.
“Training in Kiev at the Olympic facility here in Kiev has been fantastic,” said Braekhus. “It’s been a great training camp with terrific sparring and working with Johnathon has been very productive as always. We’ve also had some friends visit while we’ve been here including Wladimir Klitschko and Alexander Usyk.”
Said Banks, “Cecilia is in great shape, it’s been a very focused camp and she’s very well prepared for victory on July 21 in Moscow.”
Braekhus has held all of the sanctioning body world titles in the welterweight division since defeating Ivana Habazin in September 2014. On May 5, 2018, she made history becoming the first female fighter to appear on HBO in their 45-years of televising boxing. Her 10-round decision over Kali Reis from the iconic Stubhub Center in Carson, CA averaged an extraordinary 904,000 viewers in the live telecast on HBO.
Sagaydakovskya defeated Maria Lindberg on September 29, 2017 in Bilbao, Spain by ten-round decision to earn the vacant WBC Silver Women’s Super-Welterweight Title. In her next bout, she stopped Jennifer Retzke in the second round on December 30, 2017 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, winning the WBC Interim Women’s Super-Welterweight Title.
