Seven-time world champion Amanda Serrano controls the action over ten laps and celebrates an important victory in front of her home crowd in San Juan.
Seven-time world champion Amanda Serrano made an impressive return to winning ways. In front of her home crowd at the Coliseo Roberto Clemente in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the boxing icon defended her WBA and WBO featherweight world titles with a clear unanimous points victory over Reina Tellez.
However, the titles were only at stake for Serrano (48-4-1, 31 knockouts), as challenger Tellez (13-1-1, 5 knockouts) missed the official limit of 126 pounds. The US-American had stepped in at short notice after her original opponent Erika Cruz was withdrawn from the fight due to a positive VADA test for the banned substance clenbuterol.
However, the weight advantage hardly helped Tellez. Serrano dictated the pace and distance, used clean combinations and showed flashes of her class. The judges clearly scored the fight 97-93, 98-92 and 97-93 in favor of the Puerto Rican. In doing so, Serrano also ended a negative streak of two consecutive defeats against Katie Taylor from last year.
Despite a badly swollen right eye, which almost closed from the sixth round onwards, Serrano kept moving forward. Like a true champion, she gritted her teeth, looked for the knockout until the last round and thrilled the fans with tireless pressure.
In the co-main event, Stephanie Han (12-0, 3 knockouts) prevailed over boxing legend Holly Holm (34-3-3, 9 knockouts) via technical points decision. After an unintentional headbutt, Han was cut and the fight was stopped after seven rounds. All three judges saw Han in front: 69-65, 68-65 and 69-64.