New York (AP) — Amanda Serrano decided four years ago to fight only at her most comfortable weight.
There will be certain exceptions, of course. Her bout last year against women’s boxing history-making Katie Taylor meant lifting two weight classes, as does her rematch later this year.
Otherwise, a fighter who has spent his career jumping between divisions, who once fought for the 115-pound title just four months after winning one at 140, would only fight at the featherweight limit of 126.
Seems an easy enough decision. In a sport that is about being hurt or being hurt, all fighters want to feel their strongest.
The boxer did not always have this luxury.
“So, I was going all over the place because of the opportunities,” Serrano said.
Sometimes, they weren’t even into boxing. Serrano, like two-time Olympic gold medalist Clarissa Shields, has also competed in mixed martial arts in an effort to boost profiles and paychecks.
With the end of her career coming to an end, and with the support of Jake Paul’s MVP Promotions, the 34-year-old Serrano (43-2-1, 30 KOs) can dish out more strikes of her own. She finally stayed long enough in one division to capture three titles from 126 pounds and could become the undisputed champ if she beat Erika Cruz on Saturday at Madison Square Garden.
“Even as an amateur, I won gold at 125, so I’ve always been a featherweight fighter,” Serrano said. “But as a boxer, you have to go where the opportunities are.”
They came in places like Sweden and Argentina earlier in her career. Now the Brooklyn resident is back where Taylor outlasted her last April by split decision in MSG’s first ever headlining women’s boxing match.
“Amanda is a seven-division world champion because those fights were hard,” promoter Eddie Hearn said, saying that female boxers would think, “Oh, the other champ is like two sections up there going to fight me, so let’s jump in and fight her. Let’s go down and fight the other one. Now it’s like, The names are big enough to create big fights.”
Fights like the one between Taylor and Serrano, which matched up two of the best fights and took many awards of the year, often fall apart or happen too late in men’s boxing. Her success could help create opportunities for young female fighters that were not available during most of Serrano’s career.
“It’s definitely a starting point,” Serrano said. “We needed to break that barrier so people could see the networks and the promoters and the arenas to see we could sell. We could do all these things that guys do.”
Women’s boxing got another big boost later in the year with two marquee matches on the same card in London, with Shields defeating Savannah Marshall and Alicia Baumgardner over fellow American Michaela Mayer in Britain’s first women’s card.
It was clear that topping the biggest courts was a huge step for women’s boxing. But Hearn is looking to smaller, faraway places to envision the sport growing to where Serrano hopes.
Taylor had to pretend she was a boy so she could get into gyms, because girls weren’t allowed to box in Ireland. It’s a different scene where Hearn’s 10-year-old daughter boxes.
“Now when I go to the gym to see her or pick her up, there are dozens of little girls there,” he said. “Well, previously there weren’t dozens of young girls. You wouldn’t see one. You would never see a female, young woman in a boxing gym, even five years ago, and before that there wasn’t any club that had female fighters.”
Saturday’s card is packed with women, as Baumgardner (13-1, 7 KOs) takes on Ilham Mukhalled in a bid to become the undisputed 130-pound champion. After three consecutive tours in Britain, the Detroit product was finally able to fight again on home soil.
If Serrano wins, the plan is a trip to Ireland for a rematch with Taylor on the lightweight champion’s turf. Hearn said they both made $1 million in the first bout and would do better in the second – a far cry from saying that some women weren’t paid at all for their initial professional fights.
“It’s money to really prepare them for life and it’s something that, if you talk to young female fighters, you’ll say, ‘These girls over there make over a million dollars fighting, so don’t tell me there’s no future in women’s boxing,'” Hearn said.
Serrano said Taylor’s rematch is the only fight that will take her out of the division favorite she had to leave several times earlier in a career nearing its end, saying she has no plans to fight beyond 36.
Chasing titles in multiple divisions for fame and fortune will always be a part of boxing. Serrano hopes that doing so out of necessity will not be as demanding of the women who follow her.
“We’ve got girls who are getting into the sport who want to leave their name in the sport, so I think it’s going to come all the way,” she said. “We have great heroes calling out to other heroes, so I think we get it.”