Cecilia Braekhus: Women’s boxing is really exciting right now

With Cecilia Braekhus set to headline tonight’s final HBO boxing card, the top women’s star and No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter is excited about where the women’s side of the sport is these days.

From ESPN:

“The scene for women’s boxing right now is really exciting, more exciting than in many years, and as the No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer, it’s natural for me to be here and see what big fights can be made. I’m getting called out every week, seven to 10 girls every week, and we will see just what we can do about that.”

Braekhus (34-0, 9 KO) defends her undisputed welterweight championship and four title belts against Aleksandra Magdziak Lopes (18-4-3, 1 KO) in the main event of tonight’s Boxing After Dark tripleheader from Carson, California.

As for where she’ll go next if she wins as expected, that remains to be seen. As she notes in the ESPN piece, she’s been a pay-per-view type of fighter for a long time in Europe, and she’s always going to have that as a base. But it’s clear she wants to help the women’s game expand in the States, too, and there’s a good chance she’s going to be fielding another callout from middleweight titleholder Claressa Shields (7-0, 2 KO), a two-time Olympic gold medalist and rising pro star who has already won titles in two weight classes, moving down from 168 to 160 to do so. Shields defends her titles tonight on the same card.