With all eyes on her, Amanda Serrano was able to prove why she is one of the best fighters in the world against Yamileth Mercado.
In the co-main event of the Jake Paul-Tyron Woodley Showtime-produced fight, Serrano successfully defended her WBC, WBO, and IBO Featherweight Titles against Mercado. It was her 27th win in a row. Following the bout, she gave Mercado, the WBC Super-Bantamweight Champion who moved up in weight for this fight, some credit.
"I had a tough Mexican in front of me tonight," Serrano stated after the fight. "She's a champion in her own weight class, but I hope I made everyone proud and happy and that SHOWTIME will have me back again. I'm hoping that I made some of these people here fans of women's boxing and that I made the sport proud.
"I don't want to say that I'm No. 1 pound-for-pound, because there are great female fighters like Claressa Shields. As long as I'm at the top with fighters like her, then I'm good."
Easy work --
— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) August 30, 2021
Unified champ @Serranosisters earns the UD win over Mercado. #SerranoMercado #PaulWoodley pic.twitter.com/ZuGhod0HWO
Serrano was able to showcase her power early on in the fight, landing clean shots to the face of Mercado. She used jabs to push her back and would try and take her out with body shots. Combinations were key here, as each shot by Serrano was deadlier than the last. Mercado hesitated a few times but was able to land a few overhands.
Body shots continued to land, and then both were able to land impressive shots in round three. Serrano ended things in the round with a low shot and a right hook. Mercado tried moving forward but Serrano had a counter for almost everything. "The Real Deal" would land head shots and would avoid the overextended attempts by Mercado. Mercado landed overhand strikes, but Serrano would wave them off. She would go back to body shots that clearly affected Mercado.
The end was almost near in the seventh, as Serrano was landing a flurry of shots. Unfortunately, with women's boxing only having two-minute rounds, there was no chance for Serrano to fully capitalize. The same could be said as we were heading to round nine. Not even that, or a fight in the stands, distracted Serrano from taking full control, however.
With Mercado bleeding, Serrano continued to pounce until the final bell.
According to CompuBox, Serrano landed 160 punches compared to 95 by Mercado. 137 of those shots were power punches, while Serrano led in punches-per-round all night by a significant margin.
When it comes to her future, the multi-weight champion in Serrano wants to continue to face the best. One person on her mind is Katie Taylor, someone who she tried to fight not long ago. She also wants to go for more gold closer to home.
"I want that fight with Katie Taylor in the future," Serrano said. "First I want to fight the other featherweight champions and become undisputed in my weight class. Then we'll have two undisputed champions against each other when Katie and I fight."
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