The fighting Bredahl-brothers, something for Denmark to be proud of!
By Teddy Stenmark
23.03 - There have been a few successful brothers in boxing over the years, Canada have had their troubled but hugely popular Hilton-brothers and the US could boast with the Spinks-bros to mention two of the more famous of the bunch. In Scandinavian boxing the most successful duo must be the Bredahl-brothers, Johnny and Jimmi. Both of them were good amateurs and they both turned pro with Team Palle in Denmark.
While Johnny the younger of the two and, it's fair to say, the most successful of the two, is still active and the current WBA bantamweight champion of the World, Jimmi decided to retire in 1996 after a sour loss at the hands of tough guy Troy Dorsey (L TKO 8). Although not reaching such heights as Johnny now is enjoying, it must be said that southpaw-Jimmy wasn't far behind. The one- year older Jimmi (born 1967) turned pro in April of 1989, a few months later than his Brother who turned to the paid Ranks in late 1988. He (Jimmi) piled up 11 straight wins before stepping in with Frenchman, Pierre Lorcy for the European junior lightweight title in March (7th) of 1992. Even though Jimmi had to travel abroad to Paris France to try and grab the EBU-belt, he did it and impressively via a late stoppage (11th round) win. After the successful trip to France, about a week later in fact, 14th of March 1992, Johnny followed in his older brothers footsteps and won the European title at bantamweight by a 7th round TKO victory over Brit, Donnie Hood in Copenhagen. Later that year, in early September, both brothers would successfully triumph in WBO World title fights at the same card, a huge show at the National stadium, "Parken" in Copenhagen. Jimmi scored an impressive point victory over veteran Daniel Londas of France for the organizations junior lightweight title while Johnny outmanoeuvred dangerous Mexican Jose Quirino a few notches down in weight at junior bantam.
Johnny defended that title three times (Rafael Caban W12, Eduardo Nazario Disq 4, Edurdo Nazario W12) before he dropped it in order to challenge for the more prestigious WBC bantamweight title in Belfast, Ireland in 1995. The challenge for Johnny was a too tough task and he came short in his effort to lift the title from the hard- brawling champion, Wayne McCullough. Johnny was out-gunned and forced to accept his first pro-loss to the former Olympic silver medallist. He lost fair and square, the bout was stopped in round eight.
Jimmie only defended his WBO belt one time successfully, against Renato Cornett of Australia in Copenhagen in 1993 before he was to have his careers biggest break in the spring of 1994. An up-and coming Oscar De La Hoya was scouting for a suitable opponent to take on in his first title-fight and the Danish WBO title-holder seemed like a good opening title to try and grab for the Latin-American!
Jimmi was shipped over more or less like a "sacrificing-lamb" for the golden boy and even if Bredahl did his best to stand up to De la Hoya's power, he didn't even come close to defeating the skillful American. The fight was halted in round 10. It was to be Jimmi's biggest fight, he tried once more for the European title, against Jacobin Yoma of France in October of 1994 but came short in his ambitions to win back his former title (L12). Jimmi stayed on for a few more years but it was obvious that the fight with De la Hoya was difficult to top, he couldn't and a more lucrative fight than that and his motivation dropped fight by fight. A minor belt, the IBO junior lightweight-crown were added to his collection through a points verdict over Angel Aldama but it wasn't enough to strengthen his motivation and when he lost the belt to Yank Troy Dorsey in Vejle, Denmark in the fall of 1996, Bredahl made his mind up to call it a day. He hasn't changed his mind since and stayed in the background of his more successful kid-brother to give him his full support. Johnny Bredahl, following the loss to McCullough in 1995 only has lost once, in a legitimate World title fight with American Paulie Ayala for the title he now holds (The WBA World bantamweight title) has piled up dubious belts along the way such as the IBO, IBC and WBU and the fact that he was the first Dane to win a major World title within the three biggest alphabet-organizations (WBC/IBF/WBA) has made him a huge star in Denmark.
His solid work on the European scene with wins over such high-calibre opponents like Alexander Yagupov, Kamel Guerfi, Harald Geier and Drew Docherty had indicated that something big was about to happen and like everyone saw in Copenhagen last year (19/4-2002) Johnny advanced to the very top by knocking out reigning WBA champ, Eidy Moya of Venezuela in the ninth round. He has since then followed up with a 12 round verdict over Moya's countryman Leo Gamez and is probably headed for a unification fight with some of his champion-colleagues in a very near future. If he will land a fight with such a huge name as his older brother did remains to be seen.
