By Mark Eisner: In a spectacular card tonight, three-belt female featherweight champion Amanda Serrano will battle WBA champ Erika Cruz for the undisputed championship on DAZN at Madison Square Garden in New York. The main portion of the card will begin at 8:00 p.m. ET.
Boxing News 24 will give live updates & results of tonight’s action below:
- Undefeated female super bantamweight Ramla Ali (8-0, 2 KOs) used sharp combination punching coupled with frequent tie-ups to defeat Avril Mathie (8-1-1, 3 KOs) by a 10round unanimous decision to capture the IBF Intercontinental strap. Due to the constant holding from Ali, it was difficult for Mathie to get her shots off because she would immediately be tied up after Ramla would throw one-two combis. The judges’ scores were 99-91, 99-91, and 99-91. It’s unclear what the judges saw for them to give it to Ali by the lopsided scores that they turned in because the contest seemed closer.
- Shadasia Green (12-0, 11 KOs) scored a sixth round TKO win over Elin Cederroos (8-2, 4 KOs) in the sixth in a WBA/WBC super middleweight title eliminator. Cederroos was knocked down in the third by the 33-year-old Green. In the sixth, referee Danny Schiavon stepped in and halted the fight after Green landed a barrage of unanswered shots. The time of the stoppage was 1:08 of the sixth.
- Undefeated lightweight prospect Harley Mederos (5-0, 4 KOs) used his Gatti-esque fighting style to wear down and stop Julio Madera (4-3, 2 KOs) in the sixth round. The referee stepped in and halted the fight due to the punishment Madera was taking from Mederos. The time of the stoppage was at :25 of the sixth.
- In a competitive battle, undefeated light welterweight prospect Aaron Aponte (7-0-1, 2 KOs) defeated Joshua David Rivera (8-2, 3 KOs) by an eight round unanimous decision. The judges’ scores were 80-72, 80-72, and 80-72. Despite the wide cards, the fight had a lot of two-way action, with both guys unloading huge shots.
In the co-feature bout, IBF/IBO/WBC/WBO female lightweight champion Alycia Baumgardner (13-1, 7 faces Elhem Mekhaled for the vacant WBA title and the undisputed championship up for grabs.
Is age creeping up on Serrano?
The knockout artist Serrano (43-2-1, 30 KOs) has come up empty in her last handful of fights, failing to score knockouts like she once did regularly, which suggests that her age might be creeping up on her.
Complete card:
Amanda Serrano vs. Erika Cruz
Alycia Baumgardner vs. Elhem Mekhaled
Richardson Hitchins vs. John Bauza
Yankiel Rivera vs. Fernando Diaz
Skye Nicolson vs. Tania Alvarez
Ramla Ali vs. Avril Mathie
Shadasia Green vs. Elin Cederroos
Harley Mederos vs. Julio Madera
Aaron Aponte vs. Joshua David Rivera
At 34, Serrano isn’t the young lion that she used to be, and as a result, she’s been forced to go the distance in grueling battles in her last four contests. Serrano’s last knockout came in March 2021 when she stopped Daniela Romina Bermudez in the ninth round.
The good news for Serrano is that Cruz (15-1, 3 KOs) has very little pop in her punches, so there’s little threat of her getting much resistance from her opponent. Still, it’ll likely be another 10 round affairs for Serrano, but at least she’ll have accomplished her goal of becoming the undisputed champion at featherweight.
“It means everything to me, but I think it means more to me because my island never had an undisputed champion,” said Amanda Serrano to DAZN. “Of course, the island of Puerto Rico, where I come from where we had amazing talent, great champions coming out of that little island, but we never had an undisputed.
“It’s truly amazing to be fighting for the undisputed championship at the Hula Theater here in New York because I made history there. I became a seven-division world champion there, and I picked up the first piece from this division at that arena,” continued Serrano.
“It would be the fruit of almost twelve years of labor, and now I am just a few days from achieving it,” said Erika Cruz.
“Being in the UK for my last three fights was a way to build and to learn more about the sport. Now coming to the States, it’s been a dream come true, and now I get to fight here in America,” said Alycia Baumgardner.
