Cecilia Braekhus entered the ring for her first non-title combat in additional than fourteen years.
The previous undisputed welterweight champion ended the evening together with her first win because the pandemic, outpointing Argentina’s Marisa Joana Portillo over six rounds. All three judges scored the competition 60-54 in favor of Braekhus, who ended a 21-month ring hiatus with a combat that marked her junior middleweight debut of their DAZN opener Saturday night at Commerce On line casino & Resort in Commerce, California.
Braekhus—a Colombian boxing legend who lives in Norway—hadn’t fought since her repeat loss to Jessica McCaskill of their March 2021 rematch in Dallas, Texas. Their first assembly noticed the tip of her record-setting welterweight championship reign, having lodged 25 profitable defenses in a reign spanning greater than eleven years together with her changing into the game’s first feminine boxer to completely unify all 4 main main titles in a division.
Saturday’s six-round combat with Portillo (19-16-3, 4KOs) was put collectively on late discover as means to get Braekhus again within the ring after a deliberate summertime title problem in Colombia fell aside attributable to promotional points. The 41-year-old former champion settled for a much-needed rust-shaker, warding off a scrappy Portillo over the course of their six-round affair.
Braekhus improved to 37-2 (9KOs) with the win, her first since a ten-round choice victory over Victoria Bustos in November 2019. The final time that Braekhus entered the ring and not using a main title at stake was in October 2018, simply her tenth professional combat when she claimed an eight-round, unanimous choice victory. The final time that Braekhus fought in a scheduled six-rounder was in her eighth professional combat, which additionally occurred to mark her US debut when she claimed a win in Hollywood, Florida.
Headlining the present, Guadalajara’s Raul Curiel (11-0, 9KOs) faces fringe welterweight contender Brad Solomon (29-5, 9KOs) of Douglasville, Georgia in a scheduled ten-round bout.
Jake Donovan is a senior author for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox