Boxing
Jessica McCaskill ready to retire Cecila Braekhus, would love Cris Cyborg crossover fight
Watch McCaskill talk to Chris Mannix on DAZN
Jessica McCaskill shocked the world when she took Cecila Braekhus' undisputed welterweight championship — and the '0' she proudly carried on her record through 36 fights — on the streets of Oklahoma in August.
The two will rematch for the belts on Mar. 13 in Dallas, Texas, and the champion joined Chris Mannix on DAZN to discuss her gameplan for the second bout, how nobody expected her to defeat the Norwegian the first time around and more.
"That was definitely going to be part of the gameplan," the Illinois-born McCaskill told Mannix about the element of surprise in the first fight.
"People just weren’t ready for me to win. There was a lot of awkwardness after the fight. Nobody was ready for me winning except for me and my team.
"We executed a lot of what we practiced, and a lot of what my coach told me she would do and how she would react."
McCaskill did not have the most elite record prior to her challenge of Braekhus, winning eight and losing two of her first 10 professional bouts as she looked for her optimal weight class.
But now she has shown what she is capable of, the 36-year-old has no intentions of just losing the belts straight back to the previous titleholder.
"She says she is ready for retirement so I’m gonna help her out with that," she told Mannix."I’m expecting one of three things in the rematch: the same fight in the first which was a come-forward, go-get-her kind of fight, or what we are used to seeing in Cecila fights which is a more punch-and-move boxer style, or the ‘let me get my paycheck’ rematch — punch-hold, punch-hold, punch-hold.
"I don’t expect anything specific when I go into a fight. I let them show me what they’ve got."
If all goes to plan on Mar. 13 for McCaskill, she added that she would love to get in on the talk of big dream fights in the women's ranks, whether against previous opponent and current undisputed lightweight queen Katie Taylor, two-weight ruler at middleweight and super-middle Claressa Shields, or even against an MMA star such as Cris Cyborg."I would love a crossover fight," she said. "One of my big goals in boxing is to create history. I don’t think we’ve had any crossovers in the women’s game. In the men’s side they have, so I think it would be very explosive."
When Mannix asked her who she would like to fight, she responded: "Do you have a list? I’d probably say yes to the whole list! I’d say yes to Cyborg, she can come get it too!
You can watch the full interview right now with a DAZN subscription, as McCaskill discusses her challenging upbringing, spending time homeless, Taylor, Shields, Cyborg and more.
