By Thomas Gerbasi
It might be bad form to ask about the aftermath of a fight before that fight happens, but in the case of this Saturday’s Cecilia Braekhus vs Kali Reis welterweight title bout, it’s impossible not to wonder if Reis has made the proper arrangements should she leave Southern California with all five of Braekhus’ championship belts.
“My manager’s got all that figured out,” Reis laughs. “He already said he’ll pay for the check-in on the flight back, so he’s got that on lockdown. I’m just so excited and ready to go. This is such a big opportunity.”
There was no hesitation when that question was asked, and it’s clear that it was a topic discussed among members of the 31-year-old’s team. In other words, Reis is showing up at StubHub Center to win, not to be the foil for the pound-for-pound Queen from Norway.
Given Reis’ history, that’s no surprise. Her record is a less than sparkling 13-6-1, but that’s deceiving, as she’s been in with some of the sport’s best on a consistent basis. She’s also won a couple middleweight world titles and has gone around the world to do it. So if anyone has proven impervious to the idea of being the B side, it’s the Rhode Island native.
“I’ve embraced the fact that I’ve become a road warrior and I wouldn’t change it,” she said. “I get asked if I would change my career and stay home in New England and build fights. No, because it’s taught me so much about myself as a fighter, about myself as a person, and about the ins and out of boxing inside and outside the ring. This is the biggest fight and it’s history making, but I’ll still travel. It’s built so much character and built so much strength. Obviously I’d like to have some hometown fights, but if I gotta travel, I gotta travel.”
Yes, history making, as Braekhus-Reis will be the first women’s fight televised on HBO. That’s something people will be talking about a hundred years from now and something no one can ever take away from Reis but, understandably, most eyes are on the unbeaten Braekhus, who will be fighting in the United States for only the second time this weekend. With a win, the “First Lady” will set up more big fights, but Reis can put a dent in all those plans, and she has no butterflies heading into the biggest fight of her career.
“This is not something that’s put any kind of pressure on me or anything,” Reis said. “It’s made everything even better. When I first got the call and we made the fight, I was excited about it and we got right to work. But to make history and be the first women’s fight on HBO, it just made everything that much better. It’s not any pressure, it’s an opportunity and such a big stage that I’m looking forward to being on. It’s not anything out of the norm for me to be the ‘underdog’ going into these big fights. It’s not unfamiliar territory for me at all. It’s just amazing that we have this opportunity to make history.”
Beating the 32-0 Braekhus would be history of another sort and would change Reis’ career and life forever. It’s a full circle journey from her formative years, where she learned early on that she had fighting in her blood.
“I grew up in East Providence in the projects, she said. “I grew up in the city and I definitely had to learn how to fight. I’m the youngest of five kids and I have two older brothers, and I was a neighborhood kid, so I was always scrapping.”
In 2008, she made scrapping a career, and she’s since shared the ring with Tori Nelson, Mikaela Lauren, Christina Hammer, Hanna Gabriels and Maricela Cornejo, with most of those fights taking place two divisions above welterweight. It wasn’t exactly the path she was expecting.
“I was never really planning on fighting at 160 permanently,” she said. “I’m more comfortable at 154 or 147 anyway. Going to middleweight was by accident. We got the call and an opportunity to fight for a world title and then I stayed there. It’s always been an option, and being in women’s boxing, you have to be really flexible. You can’t get comfortable staying at one weight. As far as the master plan, it might not have been my personal conscious plan, but it’s been somebody’s subconscious plan (Laughs), so everything’s happening for a reason.”
So the time since the fight was announced hasn’t been an agonizing time of weight cutting and misery. Reis says she had plenty of time to get ready, and if she’s worried about hitting 147 pounds for the first time in several years, she’s not showing it.
Reis will be the bigger fighter on Saturday night, though, and if that’s going to be a concern for Braekhus, think again, as she has talked of facing Claressa Shields in the future, so what better way to gauge a bout with the super middleweight champion than by fighting a former middleweight titleholder.
“As far as sizing me up to size Claressa up, I’m sure that’s one of their strategies on that team, but I’m not Claressa, and if she’s looking past me to look at Claressa, then they trained wrong in this camp because I’m not just another fighter,” said Reis. “Who knows what their line of reasoning was for picking me, but if that’s in her future, great. My future is Saturday.”
A championship gives a fighter confidence. Having five of them like Braekhus does has to amp that feeling up considerably. But Kali Reis has been a champion too, and she’s confident as well, saying, “I have something to prove and I have a chip on my shoulder.”
But does she have room for five belts back home in Rhode Island?
“Oh yeah,” she laughs. “If I don’t, I’ll make room. I gotta add to the three I already have. They’re getting lonely.”
