NEW YORK – Amanda Serrano has cherished every boxing record she has established, particularly those proudly representing Puerto Rico.
There still remains at least one unfinished piece of business.
“I’ve always wanted to be the first Boricua to become undisputed champion,” Serrano told BoxingScene.com. “We’ve had so many great fighters from our island, but none who have fully unified all the titles (in the three- or four-belt era). That would be nice to be the first.”
Serrano has emerged as the slight betting favorite to accomplish the feat in her challenge of two-division and reigning undisputed lightweight queen Katie Taylor. Their superfight this weekend at Madison Square Garden in New York City (Saturday, DAZN, 7:30 p.m. ET start time/10:15 p.m. ET main event ring walk) already serves an historic moment as the first-ever female fight to serve as main event in the iconic venue’s main room.
It also marks Serrano’s first fight upstairs after having twice played the accompanying Hulu Theater. Her first appearance in the smaller room saw the Brooklyn-bred Boricua southpaw capture her seventh divisional crown, knocking out Eva Voraberger in just thirty-five seconds to win the WBO junior bantamweight title. Serrano (42-1-1, 30KOs) officially weighed 114 ¼ pounds for the January 2019 fight, just four months after weighing a career-heaviest 138 ½ pounds in a September 2018 WBO junior welterweight title-winning decision over Yamila Reynoso.
The second fight at Hulu Theater saw Serrano soundly outpoint unbeaten Heather Hardy in September 2019 to begin her third featherweight title reign. Serrano is the current WBC/WBO/IBO featherweight titlist, with hopes of fully unifying the featherweight division which she has long identified as her most effective weight. Disappointment over fellow divisional titlists Erika Cruz Hernandez (WBA) and Sarah Mahfoud (IBF) refusing to look her way led Serrano to pursue a once closed path in her pursuit of boxing immortality.
Taylor (20-0, 6KOs) has made twelve defenses of at least one lightweight title, and five since becoming undisputed champion. Her last five fights have all come after watching a previously scheduled fight with Serrano suffer a postponement due to the pandemic and then fall apart over promotional politics.
Both fighters kept the fight in the back of their minds, particularly Serrano who always knew a win over Taylor—though far from a given—was the quickest path to undisputed championship status. The fight came back around late last year, after Serrano signed with Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions (MVP), which took the lead in negotiations with Taylor’s promoter Eddie Hearn and his Matchroom Boxing outfit. Terms were tentatively agreed to near the end of 2021, with Taylor and Serrano both claiming separate wins one week apart last December.
The deal was finalized earlier this year, positioning Serrano to re-enter the record books while honoring the rich legacy established by her boxing heroes.
Jose Torres is Puerto Rico’s only ever claimant to a fully unified championship, coming in his March 1965 light heavyweight win over Willie Pastrano when the sport was in the infancy of expanding to two major sanctioning bodies (World Boxing Association and World Boxing Council). Of the island’s 69 male and female title claimants dating back to Sixto Escobar claiming universally recognized bantamweight championship status more than 85 years ago, none have ever held more than two belts at a time.
Serrano is in exclusive company with Miguel Cotto—admittedly one of her boxing idols—as the only Puerto Rican fighters to win titles in four or more weight divisions. Felix ‘Tito’ Trinidad—the all-time favorite of Serrano and just about every other modern-day Boricua—could accomplish the feat, was a three-division champion who enjoyed unified title status at welterweight and junior middleweight.
Interestingly, Cotto and Trinidad both ended their Hall of Fame careers with defeats at the same venue where Serrano has the chance to establish yet another boxing first for all Puerto Ricans.
“It’s an honor as a woman making history and as a Boricua as well,” notes Serrano. “It’s a huge honor because Puerto Rico has someone representing the entire island.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
