The originally planned world title bout between Terri Harper and Cecilia Braekhus fell though on the day of the fight this past May.
The WBA super-welterweight belt would be on the line as Braekhus was looking to put her only two-career defeats behind her and reestablish herself as one of the sport’s leading fighters. The fight fell on Katie Taylor’s grand Irish homecoming, where she lost to Chantelle Cameron.
However, the intriguing matchup between the relatively young champion Harper and the legendary Braekhus was rescheduled last week. The now unified world title fight at 154 pounds heads to The Steel City, Sheffield on October 7.
“It was very disappointing when we were in Dublin.” Breakhus’s promoter Tom Loeffler said in an exclusive interview for ProBox TV. “She was ready to fight Terri Harper. That was going to be a great co-feature on the Katie Taylor show. That was actually my first trip to Ireland. We really loved the Irish people and the city of Dublin, it was tremendous.
“That was really the first time I saw that happen in my career of over 30 years. She weighed-in, everything was fine. She did all the medical testing, everything was fine. And then she woke up the next day, you know when you are travelling and you do the open workout, just getting ready for the fight. I think it can put a strain on your immune system. Unfortunately she woke up with a severe flu bug the day of the fight. She couldn’t breath, she couldn’t get out of bed. There was no way she would have been able to get in the ring. Sometimes fighters get sick on fight week and have to cancel, that is the first time I have seen someone actually wake up on the day of the fight. GGG had a little bit of that before the [Gabriel] Rosado fight, but luckily he was able to weigh-in and then he got better on fight day.”
The rescheduled world title fight heads to the north of England in just two months time, the double world title bout to act as co-feature on Leigh Wood’s featherweight world title defense against Josh Warrington.
“Now with it being rescheduled on October 7th." He continued. "it is another blessing that there is another title on the line, the WBA and the WBO. Terri Harper is a great champion, and Cecilia naturally is a legendary champion after being an undisputed welterweight champion for so long. This is another great fight we have seen in a string of great fights in women’s boxing.
“I’ve been to Sheffield. We haven’t had a fight there, but I was with Kevin Kelley when he was chasing Naseem Hamed. So I was there with Kevin years and years ago. But, Sheffield, I know it is a great boxing city. They got great fans over there and we look forward to coming over there and having that fight with Terri Harper. We have a lot of respect for her and her team. This is a great fight for women’s boxing, if Cecilia can pull this off it will put her right back at the top of the sport.”
