Terri Harper and Cecilia Braekhus stay respectful ahead of world title fight

Denaby Main’s two-weight world champion Harper puts her WBA super-welterweight title on the line against former undisputed welterweight queen Braekhus at the 3Arena on Saturday night.

Known as ‘The First Lady’ for blazing a trail in women’s boxing, 41-year-old Braekhus went undefeated for 13 years, a run which spanned 36 fights, until suffering back-to back losses to Jessica McCaskill in 2020 – the only blemish on her otherwise-perfect record.

She represents arguably Harper’s toughest test yet and said: “I’ve shaken off those two fights (against McCaskill) and a pretty rough time under the epidemic and I’m very excited to fight against Terri Harper.

"She’s a big champion, she’s extremely professional and she’s extremely skilled in the sweet science of boxing. That’s what I enjoy, I enjoy going into a fight knowing I’m going to be boxing and now brawling for 10 rounds.

"Of course I can brawl to but I think you are going to see some world-class boxing on Saturday night.”

Harper bounced back from her only career defeat against Alycia Baumgardner to beat Hannah Rankin and claim the WBA and IBO world super-welterweight titles in September.

She won her first world title four weight categories below at super-featherweight but had no problem stepping up on the scales as she outclassed Rankin to win comfortably on all three judges’ scorecards.

Harper, who is 15 years younger than Braekhus, said: “I’m in with a great fighter on Saturday night against someone who’s got all the experience under her belt.

"I’m just excited to get to work and share the ring with such a great athlete.”

She added: “She’s someone who I have looked up to for a while, she’s done great things not just for female boxing but for boxing.

"I have just got full respect for Cecilia in taking the fight and giving me the opportunity on Saturday not to put a show on for everyone.”

Harper weighed in almost three pounds lighter than Braekhus at Friday’s weigh-in, coming in at 150.8 compared to her opponent at 153.3.