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NEW YORK – Elin Cederroos is honored to contribute to a history-making show at the sport’s most iconic venue.
The unbeaten WBA/IBF super middleweight champion will become the first Swedish boxer to defend a title at Madison Square Garden when she steps into the ring this Saturday (DAZN, 7:30 p.m. ET). She will also have the chance to become women’s boxing’s first-ever undisputed super middleweight champion as she faces unified WBC/WBO titlist Franchon Crews-Dezurn (7-1, 2KOs; 1NC).
The bout is one of two where every divisional belt is at stake. Irelands’ Katie Taylor (20-0, 6KOs) defends her undisputed lightweight crown versus Brooklyn’s Amanda Serrano (42-1-1, 30KOs) in the first ever women’s bout to headline in the main room at MSG.
“It’s a dream of mine to be on a show like this,” Cederroos told BoxingScene.com. “I’ve always wanted to fight here and now I’m the first Swedish boxer ever to fight at Madison Square Garden.”
Editor’s Note: EBU champ Bo Hogberg of Sweden fought at MSG in 1963 and beat Felix Santiago in a four rounder.
The journey has required a lot of patience on the part of Cederroos and Crews-Dezurn.
For Cederroos (8-0, 4KOs), it meant having to endure a 27-month ring break since her January 2020 WBA/IBF title unifying win over Alicia Napoleon in Atlantic City. The fight marked her U.S. debut, with the combination of the pandemic and the prior dysfunction in getting this bout to the schedule under a different promoter and platform keeping her out of the ring ever since.
This bout was due to take place last June on the Teofimo Lopez Jr.-George Kambosos Jr. Triller Pay-Per-View undercard in Miami. Already postponed by two weeks to that point, Lopez tested positive for Covid in withdrawing from the fight and the entire event getting canceled. The super middleweight championship was moved to a Triller show in September, only for event handlers to never arrange for Cederroos’ travel from Sweden and thus further putting the fight on hold.
Cederroos, 37, found job security in the form of a promotional pact with Matchroom along with Crews-Dezurn earlier this year. Plans for their fight were held back until it was time to announce the historic Taylor-Serrano showdown, with this bout giving Saturday’s show a fitting one-two punch.
“This is the perfect show for this fight to happen and for me to make history as well,” notes Cederroos. “I’m expecting a tough fight from Franchon but I look forward to becoming undisputed champion.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox