Amanda Serrano may have fallen short in her trilogy fight with Katie Taylor in July, but the seven-division world champion got back to her winning ways on Saturday with a dominant decision victory against Reina Tellez, who fought on 15 days' notice. Serrano, fighting in front of her home fans in San Juan, Puerto Rico, defended her WBO and WBA featherweight titles.
The win pushes Serrano's record to 48 wins with four losses (three to Taylor) and a draw, with 31 wins coming by knockout. "The Real Deal" told ESPN Deportes ahead of the fight that she wants to break Christy Martin's record for most knockouts in women's boxing history, which stands at 32, and collect 50 wins before she calls it a career. She pushed hard to get a finish against Tellez (13-1-1, 5 KOs), but her opponent made up for her inexperience in her first title fight, with resiliency and grit to make it to the final bell.
With that fight now in the rearview mirror, what are Serrano's options for 2026?
Serrano's immediate plans are to remain at featherweight, where she is undefeated.
"There's a lot of new girls, new champions at featherweight, so that's a nice thing to see," Serrano said during her postfight interview. "Maybe one day we can all get together and just fight each other. I am the unified featherweight champion, and there's other champions out there."
While there isn't an opponent who comes close to the profile of Taylor, there are several options for Serrano's next fight.
It's unlikely that Serrano will look to become undisputed at featherweight, as she vacated the WBC title in protest of the organization's refusal to sanction women's fights contested under men's rules of three-minute rounds, which wipes out a potential unification fight with WBC titleholder Tiara Brown. It's been Serrano's priority to see women's boxing contested under rules equal to the men.
Serrano could instead pursue a unification fight with IBF champion Nina Meinke (19-3, 4 KOs). Serrano was originally scheduled to face Meinke in December 2023, but the fight was cancelled at the last minute after Serrano was declared "medically unfit" by the Puerto Rican Boxing Commission due to an eye injury.
Serrano could also be ordered to face interim WBA titleholder Jennifer Miranda, who recently suffered the first loss of her career when she challenged then-undisputed junior lightweight champion Alycia Baumgardner in July.
There's also Erika Cruz, Serrano's original opponent for Saturday, who was pulled after an adverse finding in her drug test. Serrano and Cruz battled in a highly entertaining and bloody battle in 2023, which Serrano won by unanimous decision. Cruz called out Serrano in a Facebook post shortly after the Tellez fight.
"Me and my team knew she didn't want to fight me and tonight I confirmed that Amanda didn't want to fight someone like me," Cruz said in a post translated from Spanish. "That's called fear."
Given her desire to continue fighting, Serrano won't be short of opponents. At 37, she proved that she is still one of the most exciting women's boxers in the sport and has a lot left in the tank. She needs two knockouts to break Martin's record and two more wins to reach 50 as she enters the final stretch of her highly decorated career.
