(FEB 23) Earlier this month, Sauerland Promotion announced, that Cecilia Brækhus (10-0-0) will meet Vinni Skovgaard (7-0-0) for the vacant WBA/WBC welterweight titles. The fight will take place on the under card of the Arthur Abraham vs Lajuan Simon under card in Kiel, Germany on 14th of  March.

Cecilia Brækhus is the only female boxer under contract with Sauerland, and this is the first time the promotion company features a women's world title fight with participation from their own crop. Sauerland is to be commended for making such an even match up on their entrance on the women's world championship boxing stage.

Both boxers have unblemished pro records and very impressive amateur records, each winning European Championships and taking medals at the world championships. As amateurs they have met 5 times in the light welterweight division, with Brækhus winning 3 and Skovgaard 2.

Vinni Skovgaard, whose natural weight class is light welterweight, has stepped up a weight division for the title shot. She is the reigning EBU Light Welterweight European champion, and has won all of her 7 fights since she turned pro in early 2007. She began boxing as amateur in 1998 and had her last amateur bout in October 2006, incidentally against Cecilia Brækhus. Her achievements as amateur includes Gold Medals at the European Championship in 2004 and 2006, Bronze medal at the World Championships 2005, besides National, Scandinavian and International championship wins, too numerous to mention.

Vinni Skovgaard moved from her native Vejle to Copenhagen to devote all her time on her boxing career shortly after she joined the pro ranks. She is trained by Poul Duvill / Ivor de Lima, and managed by former European Welterweight Champion Hans Henrik Palm. Skovgaard has been suffering from the lack of action on the Danish pro scene, a situation that started even before the world wide financial crisis. This has kept her from the ring since June last year,

Cecilia Brækhus was born in Columbia, but spent her formative years in Bergen, Norway and has Norwegian citizenship. Her route into the square ring came through kickboxing, which she took up at the age of 14. Her merits in semi contact kick boxing include both a World Championship Gold Medal and an European Championship Gold.

She later changed to amateur boxing and soon found herself among the top athletes in the light welterweight division. At the end of her amateur career she could muster a stunning record of 75-5-0. She won a Gold medal at the 2005 European Championship and Silver at the 2006 World Championships and the 2004 European Championships. Brækhus had her first pro fight in January 2007.

She signed up with Saurland Promotion, as the very first female boxer - and so far the only one - in March 2008. She has moved from Norway to Berlin, where she is under the tutelage of the famous trainer Ulli Wegner, who has been in the corner for a number of world champions.
Brækhus has made a good impression on the German boxing fans.

Despite very limited exposure on TV and less than a year in the German Rings, she managed to be voted 3rd best female pro boxer in Germany by the Box-Sport Magazine, outranked only by Susi Kentikian and Ina Menzer.

The two fighters are hardly household names outside Scandinavia and, in Brækhus’s case, Germany. Hence this rather long introduction. But they are both champion material. They have both won European amateur championships, where you have to meet and beat all comers to claim champion status.

I would be surprised if they do not produce a top class title fight. Brækhus no doubt has the odds slightly on her side, boxing in front of her home crowd, and being able to stay in her weight class, while Skovgaard has to move up from light welterweight to welterweight for the title shot.

But Vinni Skovgaard is known for not doing anything by halves, and will enter the ring in Kiel top fit, well prepared and hungry to get back into battle, almost 10 months after her last fight.