Norway finally gets to see its best boxer in person

Cecilia Braekhus is hardly a household name in the U.S., despite a perfect record, a slew of world title belts, a big-name trainer and more than seven consecutive years as a champion.

She’s among the greatest women boxers in the world, but a lack of promotion in the U.S. has relegated female boxers to second-tier status.

Despite the success that the UFC has had with women’s bouts, no major U.S. boxing promoter has been willing to commit the time and resources necessary to building women’s boxing here.

“MMA promoters have done a much, much better job pushing the girls and promoting their fights [than boxing promoters],” Braekhus said. “You have to build them up and create a profile for them and get people interested in seeing their fights. They do that in MMA, but the willingness isn’t there among boxing promoters.”

Helping to make the U.S. a hot market for women’s boxing isn’t Braekhus’ first concern now.

On Oct. 1, she’ll defend her IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO welterweight belts against elite challenge Anne Sophie Mathis in what is unquestionably the biggest fight of her career.

Mathis is a star on the women’s boxing scene, and that alone makes the fight massive.

In this instance, though, the venue plays just as much of a role.

Braekhus was born in Colombia, but was adopted by a couple who lived in Norway. Braekhus was born in 1981, the same year that Norway banned boxing.

And so, as she grew in prominence and become one of the best fighters in the world, she was unable to compete at home.

“If I boxed in Norway, I would have been fined or gotten jail time, which basically would have made me a criminal,” said Braekhus, ,who is 28-0 with seven knockouts. “That is obviously something I didn’t want and being labeled a criminal hurt. At the same time, watching other fighters getting to box at home in front of big crowds, it was tough to watch because I didn’t have the same right.”

But on Oct. 1, she’ll defend her belts in a rematch against Mathis in Oslo, her first fight at home since the 33-year-old ban on boxing in Norway was lifted on Dec. 17, 2014.

It’s a game changer for Braekhus, who has fought primarily in Germany and Denmark throughout her career. She was the 2012 Norwegian Sports Person of the Year for her accomplishments in the fight game, even though she wasn’t able to fight in front of a home crowd.

That, though, was what started to melt the ice and lead to the ban being lifted in 2014. Winning a world title garnered attention at home. Becoming the nation’s sports figure of the year made her a star, even though what she was being honored for was against the law in Norway.

“I was also the first female [from Norway] to box, and there were people when they heard about me, they were like, ‘Wow, she can actually box,’ ” she said. “But not everyone was in favor of it. There was a lot of press about what I was doing. Some people were cheering me on. Some people were saying, ‘Girls shouldn’t have anything to do with boxing.’ Some people even called me a criminal. Everyone had an opinion.

“For a while, I could see myself every day in the newspaper because everyone had an opinion of what I was doing in boxing. It was crazy.”

Braekhus, who is close friends with former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and is promoted by his K2 Promotions, is eager to face Mathis.

The fight is huge in Europe where Mathis, who is from France, is highly regarded. It will be, Braekhus said, “quite a show.” And her attention is focused squarely on winning that bout. She took a unanimous decision from Mathis when they met in 2012.

But Braekhus also would like to see her sport go more mainstream, and hopes that the fight with Mathis will help in that regard.

At 34, Braekhus says she’s too old to consider an MMA career, though she has gone back and forth online with UFC star Cris “Cyborg” Justino about a fight between them.

She raved about the impact that ex-UFC champion Ronda Rousey had on women’s MMA but said Rousey couldn’t have done it without a promoter willing to give her a chance.

“I have so much respect for Ronda and what she has accomplished, and she’s managed in a short period of time to get the public to respect female athletes in her sport,” Braekhus said. “She’s done a great, great job. But you know what? She had promoters who believed in her and pushed her and gave her the means to reach out to people on a large scale.

“She did a great job when the opportunity was there, but that’s what we aren’t seeing in boxing. Nobody wants to give us that opportunity to prove ourselves.”

It’s changing, albeit terribly slowly. The NBC Sports Network recently broadcast a women’s boxing match between Heather Hardy and Shelly Vincent. Hardy won in a scintillating bout.

Boxing in general is struggling right now and promoters are losing money on most shows they put on. So no one is willing to take a risk when they don’t know if the payoff will be there.

“I believe so strongly that if women were given a really serious chance there [in the U.S.], boxing would be popular, just like women’s MMA is,” she said. “But we’re waiting to see who that person will be.”

It’s one big step at a time, though. She’ll finally get to fight at home on Oct. 1, the first time in a glorious career that has seen her do just about everything there is to do in boxing.

Taking the women’s version of the sport mainstream in the rest of the world is a huge task, potentially even more difficult than getting the votes to end Norway’s ban on boxing.

If Cecilia Braekhus has shown anything in her life, however, it’s this: She doesn’t back down from a challenge and she won’t quit.

She will, as they say, keep fighting the good fight.