By Jeff Zimmerman at ringside
Undisputed featherweight champ Amanda Serrano (45-2-1, 30 KOs) battered the gritty Heather “The Heat” Hardy (24-3, 4 KOs) for ten rounds to win a unanimous decision and retain her titles at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, TX, as the co-main event to Paul-Diaz.
The multi-divisional world champ, Serrano, was on point all night with her stiff jab, left and right hooks to the head and body as Hardy had no answer. Serrano punished the game but outmatched Hardy all ten rounds. Hardy did all she could to counter and hung in the pocket to score her own shots to the head and body from time to time, but not enough to slow down the superior Serrano.
Midway through the ten rounder, Hardy was a bloody mess with both eyes swollen. In round nine, referee Laurence Cole called a brief halt for a ringside physician visit, but the fight continued. Serrano did her best to put away Hardy up until the final bell as she landed some of her biggest shots in the final 20 seconds. The scores read 99-91 and 100-90 twice.
Serrano has won 9 world titles and is a 7-division world champ and an all tine great in woman’s boxing. She battled Hardy in 2019 for her featherweight title and Serrano repaid her for a shot at her belts tonight in a sign of gratitude.
With her win against Hardy, Serrano is gearing up for the highly anticipated rematch against Katie Taylor who she lost a hotly contested split decision on April 30, 2022, at Madison Square Garden.
Taylor is also hoping to avenge her only loss to super lightweight champ Chantelle Cameron that occurred in May of this year. They are set for a rematch Nov. 25.
She said she came back to make one last run and to make some good money so I hope they paid Heather Hardy well and she got her shot and an undisputed championship, but I hope that this is the end of her career, at least against world class opposition. She’s had a fine career and has nothing left to prove imo.
Hardy got a six figure payday and honestly its probably more than she made her entire career. People can talk crap about Jake Paul, but he has helped a lot of female boxers get larger paydays.
It hurt to watch this fight.
Think Heather’s corner could have stopped the fight. Heather took way too many punches from the start. There was nothing that indicated that she somehow would be able to turn the fight around or to get in a lucky punch.
Don’t understand how Heather even managed to get through those ten rounds.
And about Amanda vs Katie 2. I don’t know if I’m looking forward to that fight.
It feels like the ball is slowly rolling in the wrong direction for Katie as well. She also takes too many punches at times. First she has to face the not so small problem Chantelle. To then go up against a relentless Amanda in another tough fight. Can Katie make it mentally, physically and health-wise?
It will be exciting to continue to follow Amanda during the years she has left in the ring. Maybe Amanda vs Chantelle is too much to ask for. There is, after all, a difference in size and as women’s boxing has improved over time, it is starting to become a decisive factor.
Katie just turned 37 a few weeks ago, Zockerbit. Between her professional career, amateurs and I think she used to be a really good soccer player, she’s got a lot of miles on those tires. She most certainly is slowing down and she should be. THE fight for Serrano is Alycia Baumgardner, but I don’t think she REALLY wants that one and, in my opinion, Baumgardner would be to her what Cameron was/is to Taylor – bigger, stronger and younger.
Yes, you are absolutely right. Totally agree. Delfine Persoon is also there, but she might be a size too big as well. It is not easy to find Amanda Serrano’s next opponent.
Persoon is Baumgardner’s mandatory and she’s said that she intends on pressing it. I think she’s her ‘undisputed’ mandatory, like even the IBO lol.
It is True Alycia is stronger , bigger and younger than Amanda. It is also true Alycia can’t fight as Amanda every round. When Alycia fought Mikaela she was hurt and Mikaela is not a big puncher. Can she take Amanda’s power for many rounds?
She’s also faster than Amanda. I didn’t want to mention that in the case of Cameron/Taylor, because I think Taylor is faster than Cameron. If you look at Serrano these days, she isn’t knocking too many people out. She’s landing damaging blows, surely, but she isn’t knocking girls out like she used to. She’s still beating people up, but she hasn’t scored a knockout in her last 5-6 fights. On the other side, I saw Serrano fight Sarah Mahfoud. Mahfoud is a pretty good boxer, but she can’t punch at all and I thought she rocked Serrano in one of the later rounds in that fight. Baumgardner’s problem would be her pace, she tends to go entirely too hard and if she did that against Serrano, Serrano would completely outhustle her and maybe punish her instead of letting her get her wind back as she always does.
what a waste of time.
they suck.
i still feel the super fight is between Serrano vs Baumgardner for all the marbles both undisputed titles on the line
shit announcing was blah blah about the poor losers chances of landing something significant against a really good women’s boxer. They fucking piss me off acting like taking dozens of punches is competition. She was literally a punching bag . Sick fucks made this “fight”,,, she is 4o for God’s sake. Cannot fight at all. Slow. Cannot crack an egg. Announcers should have their faces kicked in while some jackass says in the background ” nice face work against that foot”..fucking horrible that women are being paid to punch other women, but having mismatches on this level, is fucking criminal. AND this was a fucking rematch…grrrr