Jessica McCaskill left little doubt about the outcome of her immediate rematch with Cecilia Braekhus.
An aggressive McCaskill was more active and delivered the harder blows to defeat the former undisputed women’s welterweight champion in their second fight Saturday night in Dallas much more convincingly. McCaskill, who upset Braekhus by majority decision nearly seven months ago, won their ten-round rematch by unanimous decision over the Juan Francisco Estrada-Roman Gonzalez sub-card at American Airlines Center.
McCaskill beat Braekhus very comfortably on the scorecards of judges Javier Alvarez (98-91), Gloria Martinez Rizzo (99-90) and Chris Tellez (100-89), who have already scored ten rounds for McCaskill. Her second straight defeat to McCaskill will not put an end to the 39-year-old Braekhus’ tremendous career, according to what she told Chris Mannix of DAZN in her post-fight interview.
McCaskill (10-2, 3 KOs) from Chicago retains the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC and WBO welterweight titles she won on August 15 in Norway’s Braekhus (36-2, 9 KOs) in Tulsa, Oklahoma, won. Braekhus was the 8-1 favorite that night, but two judges favored McCaskill’s activity and aggression, and she won a ten-round majority decision (97-93, 97-94, 95-95).
The 36-year-old McCaskill’s upset ended the longest championship period of boxing and banned Braekhus from breaking Joe Louis’ long-standing record for consecutive title defense within the same division (25). Braekhus held the WBA and WBC titles from March 2009 until McCaskill beat her.
A more accurate Braekhus had some success on Saturday night, but McCaskill’s lead was obviously unbeatable at the time.
Braekus’ right side caught McCaskill by about a minute in the ninth round. Braekhus landed right when McCaskill came 30 minutes ahead in the ninth round.
McCaskill still caught the bigger Braekhus with overhand rights when Braekhus came forward in the eighth round. At that point, McCaskill appeared to be in full control of their second chance.
McCaskill got a right on Braekhus’ head at the start of the seventh round. Braekhus nailed McCaskill late in the seventh round with an overhand, but referee Rafael Ramos pulled a point from Braekhus a few seconds later for pushing McCaskill’s head down.
McCaskill took a right hand out of a game with 1:17 to go into the sixth round, but Braekhus later succeeded in that round. She clipped McCaskill with a right hand with 35 seconds left in the sixth.
Braekhus landed a short, left hook with about 20 seconds left in the fifth round.
McCaskill paired early in the fourth round with another right side of Braekhus’ head. Another right-hander from McCaskill cut Braekhus in the second minute of the fourth round.
McCaskill’s right side of Braekhus’ head hit her about 20 seconds into the third round of balance. Braekhus stumbles into the ropes, but she does not appear to have been hurt.
McCaskill remained the attacker during that third round.
Braekhus caught McCaskill early in the second round with a right, but McCaskill came back with a left hook to the right. McCekill’s right hand left Braekhus with 25 seconds to disappear in the second round and move her into a corner of McCaskill.
McCaskill put on a face once their rematch began Saturday night. She connects with a right-hand man who supported Braekhus 30 seconds into their fight in the ropes.
Braekhus landed a right hand of her own with just under a minute to go into the opening round. McCaskill hit Braekhus back with a right hand that caused the former champion to retreat with about 15 seconds left in the first round.
Keith Idec is a senior writer / columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.