Temperature readings on the sidewalks of New York City lethargically climbed only as high as the mid-20s this past Saturday, with the wind chill reflecting real-feel numbers imperceptibly above zero at their peak. Within the confines of Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theatre, however, you would never know it.
The ten women competing on the Serrano/Cruz fight card supplied all the heat the sold-out crowd could stand. Not just thawing out the nearly 6,000 spectators like TV dinners, but galvanizing every entity contained inside the whole building into a collective fever pitch that reached its maximum level of delirium not long before the midnight hour when Amanda Serrano etched her name into the history books yet again. It’s kind of what she does.
Manhattan played host to Matchroom Boxing’s first event of 2023, a major happening which featured no fewer than five female bouts. All of them title fights. Two with undisputed championship status to be determined. Serrano guaranteed the fans a war and delivered on that promise Saturday night. She vowed to defeat Erika Cruz to become undisputed featherweight champion and was as good as her word on that count too.
Serrano vs. Cruz. Puerto Rico vs. Mexico. Unified title-holder vs. WBA Champion. Southpaw vs. southpaw. Slugger vs. slugger. That this would be the fight of the night there was no doubt. Fight of the Year candidate, though? Not sure anyone saw that coming. And yet, here we are.
I’ll be the first to admit that I had little faith that Erika Cruz would still be standing at the final bell. Don’t get me wrong, I say that with no disrespect intended whatsoever. You don’t become a world champion by accident, and Cruz earned that distinction the hard way, specifically by unseating longtime belt holder Jelena Mrdjenovich and then pitching a shutout against the Canadian with a left hook like Joe Frazier in their rematch. In fact, she didn’t lose a round in either fight, the first one ending prematurely by way of technical decision after Mrdjenovich suffered a nasty cut from a headbutt.
Head clashes have been a recurring theme with Cruz and would enter the equation on Saturday as well, turning the main event into a gore fest which would have pleased the most jaded watcher of horror movies. Only it would be Cruz’s blood leaking as if from a faucet with a burst pipe. And making a mess of Amanda’s Air Jordans. Not to worry, though. “It will wash off,” Serrano laughed during the post-fight press conference.
Your textbook walk-forward Mexican warrior, Erika’s awkward offensive technique involves leading with her head and folding her body in half before lobbing bombs–or Cruz missiles, if you will–from a lowdown crouch. There were more than a few observers, myself included, who felt that this would leave her vulnerable to an evening-ending Serrano uppercut. But, credit where credit is due. Cruz didn’t simply hang in there with Amanda and do just enough to survive, she gave as good as she got on many occasions.
It was indeed an accidental headbutt in the third round that was responsible for the crimson mask obscuring Cruz’s facial features from that point forward. Serrano’s sister Cindy, a former world champion herself who is a vital presence in Amanda’s fight camps and ring corner, wisely advised the Puerto Rican champion to take her foot off the gas to avoid a potential stoppage on cuts before the end of round four which, as the rules state, would have resulted in a technical draw. There was too much at stake to allow that.
Whether from a headbutt or left hook, Serrano developed a gash over her right eye midway through the seventh round and the Hulu Theatre Massacre continued without interference from the referee or ringside physician. The commendable, blood-soaked valiance of Erika Cruz played a huge part in making this bout as memorable as it deserved to be. But this was Amanda Serrano’s night, and she would under no circumstances be denied the undisputed championship she has spent the last fourteen years struggling toward. The judges awarded Amanda the decision in unanimous fashion by scores of 98-92 (x2) and 97-93.
Watching this slugfest from her ringside seat with a keen interest in the outcome, Katie Taylor stepped between the ropes to offer her congratulations to Amanda amid much jubilation. More was still to come when Eddie Hearn seized the opportunity to formally confirm that the rematch the boxing world has been waiting for since last April will take place in Dublin, Ireland on May 20.
Both women stood side by side, each with a full complement of title belts in their respective weight division draped over her arms, an impressive sight to say the very least to see that much golden hardware on display at the same time. This will mark the first occasion in the four belt era on which two undisputed champions have gone head to head. As I mentioned earlier, Amanda can’t seem to help herself from making history at nearly every turn. A more deserving and hard working competitor I would be hard pressed to think of.
Katie hasn’t fought since last October when she easily outboxed Karen Carbajal, which will give the homecoming Irish phenom almost seven full months in between bouts by the time the Serrano sequel comes around. By contrast, Amanda has now had two bouts since her first date with destiny against Taylor, and undoubtedly walked away from Saturday’s bloodbath having left more than a little piece of herself back in the ring that she will never reclaim. Battles such as that have this effect. It’s one of boxing’s elemental truths. But so too is that Amanda Serrano is as tough as they come and loves having something to prove.
For that matter, Alycia Baumgardner also thrives under pressure and did so once more in Saturday’s undisputed co-feature by beating the rough and ready Elhem Mekhaled. Anyone who saw Mekhaled’s performance against Delfine Persoon in a close loss (her only one coming into last weekend) came away with a newfound respect for Elhem as a tough customer indeed, and one not to be trifled with or taken for granted.
Befitting her secondary vocation as a model in her native France, Mekhaled made her ring walk a visually striking and uniquely regal one by wearing a red sequined gown over her boxing gear. Baumgardner, no stranger to fashion photographers in her own right, boogied her way to the ring with the self-assurance of an individual so comfortable with who she is that she alone determines the soundtrack she will dance to.
This night was no exception. Alycia established her preferred rhythm early and kept Mekhaled on the backfoot often, putting her challenger on the deck twice in round three. Elhem recovered well and maintained her poise, landing her fair share of clean power punches throughout the proceedings to exhibit that she was no low-risk walkover or easy mark but a credible threat. Baumgardner assessed, equalized, and systematically vanquished the threat to earn a clean sweep of the scorecards and the vacant WBA stripped from Hyun-Mi Choi to complete her collection and become the undisputed queen of the super-featherweight division.
Long may she reign. Except if Mikaela Mayer has any say in the matter. Of course, since defeating her arch rival last October, Baumgardner has made it quite clear to Mayer that she will have to wait her turn at the back of the line while she pursued the undisputed title (now a reality) and a potential legacy fight versus the winner of Taylor/Serrano 2. Which isn’t to say Alycia has totally ruled out the prospect of a return bout with Mayer, who was seated in the crowd on Saturday night beside her Top Rank stablemate Seniesa Estrada to hear Baumgardner boast in a business-like manner during her post-fight interview, “I’ll knock her the fuck out.”
It wasn’t Skye Nicolson’s fault that she didn’t look particularly good on Saturday, even in victory. You can pin the blame squarely on the shoulders of Tania Alvarez, who gave the Australian 2020 Olympian nothing to work with thanks to her propensity for relentlessly lumbering forward like the Frankenstein Monster, with greater speed but more or less the same agility, with her guard low and no jab to fend off the potshots she ate all night long before initiating a clinch, being separated, and beginning the process all over again in a Groundhog Day-type scenario which played out on an endless loop to the frustration of Nicolson, referee Sparkle Lee, and the fans.
Competing outside of Spain for the first time in her career, Alvarez was undefeated in seven previous bouts before tangling with Nicolson, but had squared off opposite no worthy adversaries to speak of and only two of which had winning records.
If Nicolson can be taken to task for anything, it was that her ring IQ is not yet high enough to adjust to the unorthodox style of a fighter like Alvarez. Stepping to the side when Tania would sprint straight toward her and using different angles to pepper Alvarez with combinations or body shots would have been a good starting point. Her team is culpable as well, as far as that goes. Pattern recognition and mid-fight technical adaptation is what they’re paid for.
Nevertheless, Skye took some solace in having banked some valuable rounds, in addition to the fact that the win (her sixth as a pro) entitled her to the vacant WBC Silver featherweight title.
Nicolson spent the last part of her fight camp in Detroit, training alongside Alycia Baumgardner with whom she became fast friends. “Those two are so cute together,” remarked A History of Women’s Boxing author Malissa Smith, who stopped by to watch the Nicolson/Alvarez fight with me. I couldn’t disagree. They are downright adorable.
In another bout between unbeaten prospects, Ramla Ali improved to a flawless 8-0 and claimed her first professional boxing title (the IBF Intercontinental super-bantamweight championship) by virtue of a dominant unanimous decision victory over Avril Mathie, a rugged Aussie who had been hand-picked by Ebanie Bridges for a voluntary title defense last year before the IBF enforced a mandatory showdown with Shannon O’Connell instead.
Ali, who was plenty talented prior to working with Manny Robles, has shown great improvement under his tutelage in her last several outings. One groundbreaking athlete paying tribute to another, her cornermen were decked out in Dodgers jerseys with Jackie Robinson’s number 42 on the back and Ramla’s name spelled out above.
Sitting down on her punches is a technique Ali has refined under Robles’ tutelage, and it shows. Though it was Ali who displayed bumps and bruises to show for her effort, she had a far easier time dealing with Mathie than I would have thought, not just beating Avril but beating her up. The disappointment of enduring her first loss notwithstanding, an appreciative Mathie later strolled through the crowd to rub shoulders and take pictures with the fans which I felt was a nice gesture.
A late but welcome addition to the card was the WBC/WBA world super-middleweight title eliminator pitting former IBF/WBA champion Elin Cederroos against Shadasia ‘The Sweet Terminator’ Green, a power-punching contender out of Paterson, New Jersey who signed a deal with Jake Paul’s MVP Promotions just eight days prior to fight night.
Franchon Crews-Dezurn, who reigns supreme at 168 pounds, was in attendance with Claressa Shields to assess the situation. She was already familiar with Cederroos, having roughed her up over ten rounds on the Taylor/Serrano undercard to become undisputed champion. The 38-year-old Swede got pretty much the same treatment this time around, only worse.
Green dropped Cederroos with a big right hand in the third, and pounded her way to a stoppage three rounds later. Now 12-0 with 11 KOs, Shadasia Green made the most of her coming out Garden party. Still in need of smoothing out some rough edges as she sets off on a collision course with Franchon Crews, ‘The Sweet Terminator’ is without question fun to watch and a force to be reckoned with.
As was also the case when I attended Taylor/Serrano at MSG last April, I got to go to Saturday’s fights with the one and only Lady Tyger, a trailblazer in women’s boxing, a Hall of Famer, and a beautiful human being inside and out.The profound nature of having the past and present come together under such meaningful circumstances is not lost on me whatsoever. Nor to her.
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