Why Amanda Serrano Refused the Fight and More Female Fight News
By David A. Avila
A jump start of women’s prizefighting recently took place though not on television as female boxers clashed in Europe. But the big news was the announcement that the most anticipated female fight of the year was not going to happen.
I repeat. Not going to happen.
Amanda Serrano will not be fighting Katie Taylor in a battle of top pound for pound fighters as expected. Victimized by the worldwide pandemic the scheduled lightweight match was first canceled in May and now looks kaput.
Puerto Rican stalwart Serrano said she would not take a cut on the agreed upon purse to fight Ireland’s Taylor. They were terms established many months ago by Matchboxing the promoter of record.
“They came at us with a pay cut. We aren’t going for that,” said Serrano the seven division world champion promoted by DiBella Entertainment.
It was going to be Serrano’s biggest payday with some saying it was more than $400,000. Taylor was supposedly fighting for a purse of near $1 million. The streaming service DAZN was going to show the female clash.
Many rank Serrano and Taylor in the top five of pound for pound rankings depending on the boxing publication. But there is no doubt both are extremely talented and a war of biblical proportions was expected in their eventual lightweight battle.
Serrano said though she relished meeting Taylor in the boxing ring she was not going to accept less money.
“Women deserve to get more and not settle for less,” said Serrano. “I owe it to the others that we deserve more.”
The arrival of the pandemic shot down the scheduled fight and has crashed all other sporting events since the month of March. Even the proposed new fight date for Taylor in August is not a sure thing considering that a second wave of the coronavirus seems to have emerged.
New Katie foe?
Recently, rumors that Delfine Persoon has interest in replacing Serrano on the August fight date. They fought each other one year ago in New York City with Taylor winning by majority decision at Madison Square Garden. It was a tremendous fight but one marred by questions regarding testing for PEDs.
Since June 1, 2019, both the New York State Athletic Commission and the World Boxing Council that ordered testing by VADA have refused to release the findings of those tests for both Taylor and Persoon.
Despite repeated requests for the results by this publication to both NSAC and WBC, all requests have been ignored.
Mauricio Sulaiman, the president of WBC, in early 2019 made a grandiose statement via conference call that his organization was going to lead the charge on PED testing for female prize fights especially for world title fights. Since his announcement Persoon was involved in three world title fights and no results have ever been released.
Last year Persoon fought New York’s Melissa St. Vil in a WBC lightweight title defense in Belgium on March 9, 2019. Though WBC allegedly ordered tests none took place according to St. Vil who lost the fight by technical knockout.
Three months later on June 1, Persoon and Taylor were tested by VADA before their lightweight clash. The Belgian fighter nearly toppled Taylor in a fiery clash that many publications considered the Fight of the Year. In their fight Persoon made a tireless display and nearly floored a debilitated Taylor. After 10 rounds Taylor won by a very close majority decision. No tests results on either athlete were revealed. VADA the organization ordered to administer the tests by WBC could not reveal the test results without permission.
Two weeks later in Los Angeles, the WBC held an informal dinner to invite the boxing media at the Palm Restaurant downtown on Monday June 17. About 30 reporters arrived and discussed boxing issues with Sulaiman. When the question regarding PED test results for Taylor and Persoon was raised, he skirted around the issue.
One year has passed since that fight and no results were ever shown. Yet, Persoon wants to fight Taylor again.
PED juicing is dangerous for the non-user and especially for women because of significant rise of the testosterone levels. If some serious injury were to happen to one of the fighters it could lead to disastrous consequences.
The WBC needs to release the test results of Persoon and Taylor from their first encounter before allowing another meeting. In fact, all sanctioning organizations need to begin testing all female title fights. Not just the WBC but all other sanctioning organizations.
Ewa
Poland’s Ewa Piatkowska, the former WBC super welterweight titlist, has dropped down to her more natural weight division at the 140 pound super lightweight limit. She will be a guest caller on the 2min Round radio/podcast on Thursday night 7:30 p.m. Pacific Time.
Piatkowska recently fought veteran Karina Kopinska on June 12 in Konary, Poland and won by unanimous decision after six rounds. In fact, all of her fights have taken place in Poland but her desire is to fight in the USA. She formerly held the WBC super welterweight world title that won by decision against Aleksandra Lopes on September 2016 and defended it twice before vacating the belt.
The new belt holder is now Claressa Shields who defeated Ivana Habazin last January by unanimous decision to win both the WBC and WBO super welterweight world titles.