Jessica McCaskill v Cecilia Brækhus II: undisputed welterweight championship – live!

Chicago banker defends undisputed 147lbs title in rematch
Estrada and Chocolatito meet to unify super flyweight titles
Marvin Hagler, famed middleweight champion, dies aged 66
Tweet Bryan at @BryanAGraham or email him

3.48am GMT

3.39am GMT

As we count down toward McCaskill-Brækhus II, it would be malpractice to not mention the passing of Marvelous Marvin Hagler today at the age of 66. A middleweight terror who reigned as the division’s undisputed champion from 1980 to 1987, Hagler leaves behind a towering legacy as demonstrated by the tributes that continue to flood in from around the world of boxing.

3.19am GMT

The quick finish means we’re getting a swing bout right now before McCaskill and Brækhus. Mexico’s Daniel Echevarria and France’s Souleymane Cissokho are in the ring for an eight-round super welterweight contest.

@1LadyCecilia #McCaskillBraekhus2 pic.twitter.com/xiozoq7B40

3.15am GMT

An abrupt end to what had been an entertaining fight between Hiroto Kyoguchi and Axel Aragon Vega. Seems that Vega broke a bone in his hand with a punch that landed on the top of Kyoguchi’s skull. (“Fourth metacarpal,” says the ringside doctor.)

It will go down a technical knockout at 1:32 of the fifth round for Kyoguchi, who defends his WBA junior flyweight title for a third time and improves to 15-0 with 10 knockouts.

2.59am GMT

Jessica McCaskill went from homelessness to a successful investment banking career while moonlighting as a professional boxer. It was an extraordinary journey even before last August, when she defied the 6-1 odds against her to defeat Cecilia Brækhus for the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO welterweight titles.

Less than 30 hours after winning the fight of her life, she was back in the Body Shot Boxing Club on Chicago’s South Side on Monday morning at 6am.

McCaskill, who balances her boxing career with a full-time job as a regulatory reporting analyst for Chicago brokerage giant RJ O’Brien & Associates, has brought her work to the gym in the four months since her office shut down for the coronavirus pandemic. But working from home, as it were, has done little to compromise her productivity.

Three days a week, McCaskill starts her day at 3.30am, taking care of her two rescue pit bulls before meeting her trainees for a strength and conditioning session at a quarter to five. After heading to the gym in the city’s Pilsen neighborhood for another workout, she settles in behind her computer from 6am until 3pm. Unlike office life in the beforetimes, ducking out for a lunchtime run no longer requires a wardrobe change on either end.

2.39am GMT

Austin ‘Ammo’ Williams has defeated Denis Douglin by a unanimous decision by scores of 79-73 (twice) and 77-75. The highly touted middleweight prospect from Houston improves to eight wins in eight pro fights. Williams landed 145 of 301 punches on the night (47%), compared to 78 of 272 for Douglin (29%). One to watch, no question.

= ✅@ammowilliams makes a giant leap forward as pro beating @DaMommasBoy in Dallas [79-73, 79-73, 77-75]#WilliamsDouglin #EstradaChocolatito2 pic.twitter.com/N1CehBygZ1

2.21am GMT

Hello and welcome to tonight’s welterweight title fight between Jessica McCaskill and Cecilia Brækhus. Tonight’s four-belt showdown for the undisputed championship at 147lbs is a rematch of their first meeting six months ago, when McCaskill sprang a major upset against Brækhus, the previously unbeaten Norwegian widely regarded as the sport’s pound-for-pound world No 1.

Brækhus, who was attempting to surpass Joe Louis’s record of 25 consecutive successful title defenses and instead settled for a tie with the American legend, strongly hinted at retirement in the immediate aftermath. But several months spent running at home in Norway convinced her to take one crack at winning back the title that she’d held for more than 11 years.

8.53pm GMT

Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s a look back at last year’s first meeting between McCaskill and Brækhus.

Jessica McCaskill, a 35-year-old investment banker from Chicago who overcame homelessness as a child and moonlights as a professional boxer, sprang a seismic upset on Saturday night in dethroning Cecilia Brækhus, the undisputed welterweight champion widely regarded as the sport’s pound-for-pound world No 1.

The younger and busier American challenger won a narrow 10-round majority decision by scores of 97-94, 97-93 and 95-95 to capture the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO titles at 147lbs in a purpose-built ring on the streets of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. (The Guardian had it 95-95.)