Amanda Serrano Becomes Puerto Rico’s First Five-Division Boxing World Champion
Amanda Serrano’s journey to the top of women’s boxing also brought to the top of Puerto Rico’s long and rich history with the sport.
Serrano did what no other Puerto Rican boxer, male or female, has ever done: win a world title at five different weight classes when she defeated Dahiana Santana to win the vacant WBO Women’s Bantamweight Title.
Serrano displayed a lot of power throughout the bout, hurting and nearly knocking down Santana, a former two-time world champion. Serrano was landing numerous uppercuts halfway through the eighth round, which prompted the referee to put a stop to the contest. Serrano landed 135 power punches with a 41 percent accuracy rate while Santana only landed 52 power punches. Serrano had been dominating the entire fight, as Fightful and the three judges had Serrano winning 70-62 by the time the fight was stopped.
Legendary boxers that have come from Puerto Rico such as Hector "Macho" Camacho, Felix "Tito" Trinidad, Wilfredo Benitez, have not been able to accomplish what Serrano accomplished in front of a rabid pro-Serrano crowd at the Barclays Center. The new champion said that she won’t stop with her career even though she got the record.
“It means everything to me. We worked so hard. We worked hard for this moment,” Serrano said. “To be a five-division world champion is amazing. To be the first female and first Puerto Rican is amazing. I’m so proud to be a Puerto Rican. I’m so proud to be a SHOWTIME fighter. I’m just so happy for this moment. Just to be a five-division world champion, I could retire today and be the happy moment alive. I just started. I hope I’m back again.”
Entering this fight, Serrano was tied with Miguel Cotto as the only boxers from Puerto Rico to win world titles at four weight classes. Serrano is also the WBO Women’s Super Bantamweight title holder. She defended that title in her last fight against Yazmin Rivas in a televised bout on Showtime Extreme at the Barclays Center back in January.
