Undisputed featherweight champion of the world Amanda ‘The Real Deal’ Serrano 45-2-1 (30) has a plethora of options following his dominant 10-round points win over Heather ‘The Heat’ Hardy 24-3 (4) at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas on Saturday night.
In the main support bout to the Jake Paul vs Nate Diaz clash, Serrano outboxed and outpunched the 41-year-old Hardy from Brooklyn, New York to win by scores of 100-90 twice and 99-91.
Statistics don’t always tell the full story, but in this case they came close to it. According to CompuBox, Serrano swept every statistical category that they track. In addition to landing 47% of her power punches, Serrano landed 109 more power punches than Hardy.
The 34-year-old Puerto Rican southpaw who also boxes out of Brooklyn landed a career high 278 punches and a career high 242 power punches in what was a complete performance.
The bout was a rematch of their 2019 clash that Serrano also won with scores of 98-92 and 98-91 twice.
“We’ve been friends a long time,” the WBC, WBA, WBO, IBF and Ring Magazine 126-pound champion said after the victory. “We struggled in this game. The women now who are coming into this sport, they have it easier than we had.”
The history between Serrano and Hardy runs deep. It was Hardy who afforded Serrano the opportunity fight her for the WBO featherweight title that set her on the road to undisputed.
“I get emotional. We wanted to give back to Heather what she gave to us,” Serrano said. “We got paid nothing, absolutely nothing back in the day. She was there when nobody cared about us.
“Now we have an amazing team and an amazing path with MVP (Most Valuable Promotions) that’s given me this opportunity to showcase women’s boxing and to help other women in this sport.”
The biggest fights for Serrano now would come outside of her natural weight class. One division north is fellow undisputed champion Alycia ‘The Bomb’ Baumgardner 15-1 (7) who has built a strong profile for herself since defeating Terri Harper for the WBC super featherweight title two years to begin her collection of world championship belts. The 29-year-old was part of the broadcast team on DAZN for Serrano-Hardy II.
Another option would be a chance at revenge against undisputed lightweight champion Katie Taylor 22-1 (6) of Ireland. The 37-year-old is coming off a majority decision loss to undisputed junior welterweight champion Chantelle ‘Il Capo’ Cameron 18-0 (8) in May and will head into a rematch with her sole conqueror in November.
Serrano lost a split decision to Taylor at New York’s famed Madison Square Garden in April of last year, going down by scores of 93-96, 93-97 and 96-94.
Whichever road Serrano chooses to take, she is sure to bring her large fanbase with her.
