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Amanda Serrano Dominates and KOs Daniela Bermudez in Old San Juan

Amid a beautiful beachfront setting Amanda Serrano made sure it was no paradise for Daniela Bermudez and stopped her by knockout in a battle between top pound-for-pound fighters on Thursday.
“We knew she was tough. She’s Latina. She’s from Argentina. We know that Argentines are very tough women. We were ready for it,” said Serrano.
Serrano (40-1-1, 30 KOs), a seven-division world titlist, accepted the challenge from Argentina’s Bermudez (29-4-3, 10 KOs) for the WBO and WBC featherweight titles and showed the limited crowd at Plaza del Quinto Centenario in San Juan, Puerto Rico, she indeed is the “Real Deal.”
Each fighter entered the ring with reputations at stake as two of top fighters in the female fight world. Each also realized that the world would be able to watch the beachfront spectacle and bragging rights were the prize.
Immediately Serrano took the lead behind a jab while circling right. Bermudez took a moment to gauge the Puerto Rican fighter’s movements and power. Serrano connected with a right uppercut and hooks. Bermudez countered with consecutive rights. Neither seemed fazed by the early exchange.
“I knew I was going to be able to walk her down. I’m a lot bigger than her and a lot more power,” said Serrano about Bermudez who was fighting at featherweight for the first time in her lengthy career.
In the second round Serrano stepped up the tempo and showed off her abilities to slip and counter. Bermudez moved in fired away but was unable to find a groove. Serrano slipped under, moved to the side and unleashed accurate counters. In the last 30 seconds Bermudez unleashed a three-punch combination and was met with a stiff left to the body by Serrano. It was a telling blow.
Neither fighter took the lead in the third and both fighters paused their attacks. Serrano demonstrated she was able to land from afar with a lead left cross and a stiff jab. Bermudez fired a jab and was met with a left cross to the body. Bermudez fired a one-two combination at the end of the bell. It seemed apparent that Bermudez looked to end each final 30 seconds with an attack.
Serrano seemed in a comfort zone in the fourth round and with the ability to time Bermudez’s attacks. She also seemed able to slip under the Argentine’s blows and counter with hooks. Bermudez fired an effective three-punch combination and was met by a Serrano three-punch combination. Bermudez fired a solid right cross and was met by a thudding left to the body. Bermudez attacked and was met by a solid left counter that snapped back the Argentine fighter’s head. She took it well.
“I expected it. I knew she was a tough fighter,” said Serrano who prepared in Brooklyn.
Bermudez seemed unable to switch gears while Serrano varied her attack. A jab by Bermudez in the fifth round followed by a left hook seemed to signal a change in momentum, but Serrano opened up with a left to the body and a three-punch combination capped by a right hook.
The face of Bermudez showed concern in between rounds and it also showed swelling and redness from the incoming blows. Still, Bermudez never seemed severely hurt by Serrano’s blows to the head.
Bermudez, a three-division world champion, did not become a multiple world titlist by quitting. She attempted to stand her ground and slug it out with the powerful Puerto Rican fighter. And she was able to match blow for blow except when Serrano connected with body shots. That slowed Bermudez every time.
By the eighth round it was seemingly apparent that Bermudez was far behind on the score cards. She gutted it out and was landing blows but then Serrano fired a right hook to the body and a left hand to the head and that sapped the energy from the Argentine fighter.
Bermudez needed a knockout to win in the ninth round. She connected with a right cross but was met by a body shot. Bermudez re-ignited her attack and was met with a perfect counter left cross from the Puerto Rican fighter. Bermudez attacked again but Serrano slipped under and connected with a left to the body and a right to the body. Bermudez’s face seemed in a frozen state of shock and she turned away and went down on both knees. She looked at her corner and shook her head as the referee counted her out by knockout at 1:33 of the ninth round.
“I knew I was hurting her, her hands were dropping. My corner told me two hooks to the body and that’s what happened,” said Serrano who became the only fighter to defeat Bermudez via knockout. “My knockout came in the ninth which shows I have power till the very end.”
Serrano had knocked off a pound-for-pound fighter.
When asked about her future plans, Serrano was decisive.
“I want to become undisputed,” said Serrano who holds the WBO and WBC featherweight world titles. “Nothing against none of those champions. I want those belts. If they want to become undisputed champion, they need to come through me. So we need each other.”
Of all the seven division world titles Serrano has conquered, featherweight seems to be her best. She was dominant.
Arely Returns
Mexico’s Arely Mucino (29-3-2) returned to boxing after a near two-year layoff due to injury and was victorious over Lucia Hernandez (7-11) by unanimous decision after eight rounds in a super flyweight bout.
Mucino, 31, is a former flyweight world champion, and recently signed a promotional agreement with Cotto Promotions and Golden Boy Promotions. On various occasions in the past, she held the WBA, WBO, WBC and IBF flyweight world titles.
Men’s Fights
The identical Baez twins, Leonardo and Eduardo, opened the main TV portion of the card. Super bantamweights who have one foot on both sides of the border, growing up in Mexicali and in Calexico, CA (shades of Andy Ruiz Jr.), the brothers earned a split against local products.
Leonardo Baez drew the tougher assignment. In his first fight since getting stopped by Australia’s Jason Moloney at the MGM Bubble, Leonardo was halted in the fourth round by sharpshooting southpaw Carlos Caraballo who improved to 14-0 with his 14th KO.
Caraballo knocked Baez on the seat of his pants in the second round with a 1-2-3 series of uppercuts. Baez wasn’t discouraged and continued to press the action, but he didn’t have the guns to stave off the Puerto Rican. The bout ended at the 2:36 mark of round four with Baez being strafed against the ropes, forcing the referee to intervene as Baez’s corner was simultaneously waving the white towel.
Eduardo Baez, (19-1-2, 6 KOs) won a lopsided 8-round decision over Puerto Rico’s previously undefeated Abimael Ortiz, now 9-1-1. The scores (80-72 and 79-73 twice) did not reflect the competitiveness of the fight as Ortiz gave almost as good as he got in a good-action fight that was contested at close quarters.
Photo credit: Tom Hogan / Hogan Photos / Ring City USA
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Ringside at the Fontainebleau where Mikaela Mayer Won her Rematch with Sandy Ryan

LAS VEGAS, NV — The first meeting between Mikaela Mayer and Sandy Ryan last September at Madison Square Garden was punctuated with drama before the first punch was thrown. When the smoke cleared, Mayer had become a world-title-holder in a second weight class, taking away Ryan’s WBO welterweight belt via a majority decision in a fan-friendly fight.
The rematch tonight at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas was another fan-friendly fight. There were furious exchanges in several rounds and the crowd awarded both gladiators a standing ovation at the finish.
Mayer dominated the first half of the fight and held on to win by a unanimous decision. But Sandy Ryan came on strong beginning in round seven, and although Mayer was the deserving winner, the scores favoring her (98-92 and 97-93 twice) fail to reflect the competitiveness of the match-up. This is the best rivalry in women’s boxing aside from Taylor-Serrano.
Mayer, 34, improved to 21-2 (5). Up next, she hopes, in a unification fight with Lauren Price who outclassed Natasha Jonas earlier this month and currently holds the other meaningful pieces of the 147-pound puzzle. Sandy Ryan, 31, the pride of Derby, England, falls to 7-3-1.
Co-Feature
In his first defense of his WBO world welterweight title (acquired with a brutal knockout of Giovani Santillan after the title was vacated by Terence Crawford), Atlanta’s Brian Norman Jr knocked out Puerto Rico’s Derrieck Cuevas in the third round. A three-punch combination climaxed by a short left hook sent Cuevas staggering into a corner post. He got to his feet before referee Thomas Taylor started the count, but Taylor looked in Cuevas’s eyes and didn’t like what he saw and brought the bout to a halt.
The stoppage, which struck some as premature, came with one second remaining in the third stanza.
A second-generation prizefighter (his father was a fringe contender at super middleweight), the 24-year-old Norman (27-0, 21 KOs) is currently boxing’s youngest male title-holder. It was only the second pro loss for Cuevas (27-2-1) whose lone previous defeat had come early in his career in a 6-rounder he lost by split decision.
Other Bouts
In a career-best performance, 27-year-old Brooklyn featherweight Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington (15-0, 9 KOs) blasted out Jose Enrique Vivas (23-4) in the third round.
Carrington, who was named the Most Outstanding Boxer at the 2019 U.S. Olympic Trials despite being the lowest-seeded boxer in his weight class, decked Vivas with a right-left combination near the end of the second round. Vivas barely survived the round and was on a short leash when the third stanza began. After 53 seconds of round three, referee Raul Caiz Jr had seen enough and waived it off. Vivas hadn’t previously been stopped.
Cleveland welterweight Tiger Johnson, a Tokyo Olympian, scored a fifth-round stoppage over San Antonio’s Kendo Castaneda. Johnson assumed control in the fourth round and sent Castaneda to his knees twice with body punches in the next frame. The second knockdown terminated the match. The official time was 2:00 of round five.
Johnson advanced to 15-0 (7 KOs). Castenada declined to 21-9.
Las Vegas junior welterweight Emiliano Vargas (13-0, 11 KOs) blasted out Stockton, California’s Giovanni Gonzalez in the second round. Vargas brought the bout to a sudden conclusion with a sweeping left hook that knocked Gonzalez out cold. The end came at the 2:00 minute mark of round two.
Gonzalez brought a 20-7-2 record which was misleading as 18 of his fights were in Tijuana where fights are frequently prearranged. However, he wasn’t afraid to trade with Vargas and paid the price.
Emiliano Vargas, with his matinee idol good looks and his boxing pedigree – he is the son of former U.S. Olympian and two-weight world title-holder “Ferocious” Fernando Vargas – is highly marketable and has the potential to be a cross-over star.
Eighteen-year-old Newark bantamweight Emmanuel “Manny” Chance, one of Top Rank’s newest signees, won his pro debut with a four-round decision over So Cal’s Miguel Guzman. Chance won all four rounds on all three cards, but this was no runaway. He left a lot of room for improvement.
There was a long intermission before the co-main and again before the main event, but the tedium was assuaged by a moving video tribute to George Foreman.
Photos credit: Al Applerose
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William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0

William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0
No surprise, once again William Zepeda eked out a win over the clever and resilient Tevin Farmer to remain undefeated and retain a regional lightweight title on Saturday.
There were no knockdowns in this rematch.
The Mexican punching machine Zepeda (33-0, 17 KOs) once more sought to overwhelm Farmer (33-8-1, 9 KOs) with a deluge of blows. This rematch by Golden Boy Promotions took place in the famous beach resort area of Cancun, Mexico.
It was a mere four months ago that both first clashed in Saudi Arabia with their vastly difference styles. This time the tropical setting served as the background which suited Zepeda and his lawnmower assaults. The Mexican fans were pleased.
Nothing changed in their second meeting.
Zepeda revved up the body assault and Farmer moved around casually to his right while fending off the Mexican fighter’s attacks. By the fourth round Zepeda was able to cut off Farmer’s escape routes and targeted the body with punishing shots.
The blows came in bunches.
In the fifth round Zepeda blasted away at Farmer who looked frantic for an escape. The body assault continued with the Mexican fighter pouring it on and Farmer seeming to look ready to quit. When the round ended, he waved off his corner’s appeals to stop.
Zepeda continued to dominate the next few rounds and then Farmer began rallying. At first, he cleverly smothered Zepeda’s body attacks and then began moving and hitting sporadically. It forced the Mexican fighter to pause and figure out the strategy.
Farmer, a Philadelphia fighter, showed resiliency especially when it was revealed he had suffered a hand injury.
During the last three rounds Farmer dug down deep and found ways to score and not get hit. It was Boxing 101 and the Philly fighter made it work.
But too many rounds had been put in the bank by Zepeda. Despite the late rally by Farmer one judge saw it 114-114, but two others scored it 116-112 and 115-113 for Zepeda who retains his interim lightweight title and place at the top of the WBC rankings.
“I knew he was a difficult fighter. This time he was even more difficult,” said Zepeda.
Farmer was downtrodden about another loss but realistic about the outcome and starting slow.
“But I dominated the last rounds,” said Farmer.
Zepeda shrugged at the similar outcome as their first encounter.
“I’m glad we both put on a great show,” said Zepeda.
Female Flyweight Battle
Costa Rica’s Yokasta Valle edged past Texas fighter Marlen Esparza to win their showdown at flyweight by split decision after 10 rounds.
Valle moved up two weight divisions to meet Esparza who was slightly above the weight limit. Both showed off their contrasting styles and world class talent.
Esparza, a former unified flyweight world titlist, stayed in the pocket and was largely successful with well-placed jabs and left hooks. She repeatedly caught Valle in-between her flurries.
The current minimumweight world titlist changed tactics and found more success in the second half of the fight. She forced Esparza to make the first moves and that forced changes that benefited her style.
Neither fighter could take over the fight.
After 10 rounds one judge saw Esparza the winner 96-94, but two others saw Valle the winner 97-93 twice.
Will Valle move up and challenge the current undisputed flyweight world champion Gabriela Fundora? That’s the question.
Valle currently holds the WBC minimumweight world title.
Puerto Rico vs Mexico
Oscar Collazo (12-0, 9 KOs), the WBO, WBA minimumweight titlist, knocked out Mexico’s Edwin Cano (13-3-1, 4 KOs) with a flurry of body shots at 1:12 of the fifth round.
Collazo dominated with a relentless body attack the Mexican fighter could not defend. It was the Puerto Rican fighter’s fifth consecutive title defense.
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 319: Rematches in Las Vegas, Cancun and More

Rematches are the bedrock for prizefighting.
Return battles between rival boxers always means their first encounter was riveting and successful at the box office.
Six months after their first brutal battle Mikaela Mayer (20-2, 5 KOs) and Sandy Ryan (7-2-1, 3 KOs) will slug it out again for the WBO welterweight world title this time on Saturday, March 29, at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas.
ESPN will show the Top Rank card live.
“It’s important for women’s boxing to have these rivalries and this is definitely up there as one of the top ones,” Mayer told the BBC.
If you follow Mayer’s career you know that somehow drama follows. Whether its back-and-forth beefs with fellow American fighters or controversial judging due to nationalism in countries abroad. The Southern California native who now trains in Las Vegas knows how to create the drama.
For female fighters self-promotion is a necessity.
Most boxing promoters refuse to step out of the usual process set for male boxers, not for female boxers. Things remain the same and have been for the last 70 years. Social media has brought changes but that has made promoters do even less.
No longer are there press conferences, instead announcements are made on social media to be drowned among the billions of other posts. It is not killing but diluting interest in the sport.
Women innately present a different advantage that few if any promoters are recognizing. So far in the past 25 years I have only seen two or three promoters actually ignite interest in female fighters. They saw the advantages and properly boosted interest in the women.
The fight breakdown
Mayer has won world titles in the super featherweight and now the welterweight division. Those are two vastly different weight classes and prove her fighting abilities are based on skill not power or size.
Coaching Mayer since amateurs remains Al Mitchell and now Kofi Jantuah who replaced Kay Koroma the current trainer for Sandy Ryan.
That was the reason drama ignited during their first battle. Then came someone tossing paint at Ryan the day of their first fight.
More drama.
During their first fight both battled to control the initiative with Mayer out-punching the British fighter by a slender margin. It was a back-and-forth struggle with each absorbing blows and retaliating immediately.
New York City got its money’s worth.
Ryan had risen to the elite level rapidly since losing to Erica Farias three years ago. Though she was physically bigger and younger, she was out-maneuvered and defeated by the wily veteran from Argentina. In the rematch, however, Ryan made adjustments and won convincingly.
Can she make adjustments from her defeat to Mayer?
“I wanted the rematch straight away,” said Ryan on social media. “I’ve come to America again.”
Both fighters have size and reach. In their first clash it was evident that conditioning was not a concern as blows were fired nonstop in bunches. Mayer had the number of punches landed advantage and it unfolded with the judges giving her a majority decision win.
That was six months ago. Can she repeat the outcome?
Mayer has always had boiler-oven intensity. It’s not fake. Since her amateur days the slender Southern California blonde changes disposition all the way to red when lacing up the gloves. It’s something that can’t be taught.
Can she draw enough of that fire out again?
“I didn’t have to give her this rematch. I could have just sat it out, waited for Lauren Price to unify and fought for undisputed or faced someone else,” said Mayer to BBC. “That’s not the fighter I am though.”
Co-Main in Las Vegas
The co-main event pits Brian Norman Jr. (26-0, 20 KOs) facing Puerto Rico’s Derrieck Cuevas (27-1-1, 19 KOs) in a contest for the WBO welterweight title.
Norman, 24, was last seen a year ago dissecting a very good welterweight in Giovani Santillan for a knockout win in San Diego. He showed speed, skill and power in defeating Santillan in his hometown.
Cuevas has beaten some solid veteran talent but this will be his big test against Norman and his first attempt at winning a world title.
Also on the Top Rank card will be Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington and Emiliano Vargas, the son of Fernando Vargas, in separate bouts.
Golden Boy in Cancun
A rematch between undefeated William “Camaron” Zepeda (32-0, 27 KOs) and ex-champ Tevin Farmer (33-7-1, 8 KOs) headlines the lightweight match on Saturday March 29, at Cancun, Mexico.
In their first encounter Zepeda was knocked down in the fourth round but rallied to win a split-decision over Farmer. It showed the flaws in Zepeda’s tornado style.
DAZN will stream the Golden Boy Promotions card that also includes a clash between Yokasta Valle the WBC minimumweight world titlist who is moving up to flyweight to face former flyweight champion Marlen Esparza.
Both Valle and Esparza have fast hands.
Valle is excellent darting in and out while Esparza has learned how to fight inside. It’s a toss-up fight.
Fights to Watch
Fri. DAZN 12 p.m. Cameron Vuong (7-0) vs Jordan Flynn (11-0-1); Pat Brown (0-0) vs Federico Grandone (7-4-2).
Sat. DAZN 5 p.m. William Zepeda (32-0) vs Tevin Farmer (33-7-1); Yokasta Valle (32-3) vs Marlen Esparza (15-2).
Sat. ESPN 7 p.m. Mikaela Mayer (20-2) vs Sandy Ryan (7-2-1); Brian Norman Jr. (26-0) vs Derrieck Cuevas (27-1-1).
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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