Two high-profile fights took place last weekend in New York City at separate locations, with two popular hometown boxers taking losses.
On Friday night at Madison Square Garden, history was made because each bout featured women in a major boxing event for the first time. Amanda Serrano, who was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, and reared in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, lost to Katie Taylor for the third time, falling to 47-4-1, 31 KOs, by a 10-round majority decision. Taylor (25-1, 6 KOs) retained her super-lightweight title with a score of 97-93, 95-95, 97-93 in front of a soldout crowd of 19,721.
“I thought I showed a very smart performance, a very clever performance,” said the 39-year-old Taylor. “This performance I knew I was capable of against Amanda. The two fights previously ended up as complete wars, and I came out of the ring battered and bruised, and I’m thinking, what? Why am I just standing there fighting with our newest cable and moving my legs like that?” Taylor asked rhetorically. “I’m just out-boxing her and I’m just happy I was able to produce that tonight and execute the game plan that (trainer) Ross (Enamait) has been telling me to do all along. So yeah, I’m very very satisfied right now.”For Serrano, 36, it was a disappointing ending to the trilogy since both boxers have said they won’t meet again. “We tried something different,” she explained. “It was all about working smarter, not harder. I tried to keep my distance and tried not to go in there and fight with her …”
Saturday evening, just 10 miles away from MSG, Louis Armstrong Stadium in Flushing-Corona, Queens, the annual site of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, hosted its inaugural fight card. The United Kingdom’s Hamzah Sheeraz (21-0-1, 17 KOs) moved up to super-middleweight and dominated Brooklyn’s Edgar Berlanga (23-2, 18 KOs), dropping the 28-year-old Puerto Rican pugilist three times, with the fight being stopped in the fifth round by referee David Fields.
“I told (my trainer Andy Lee) I can hunt this guy down and he believed me, (and) not many coaches do that, so Andy, thank you very much,” Sheeraz, 26, said of changing his strategy against his opponent after the second round.
Although it was a bad weekend for Brooklynites, it was an excellent night for fighters from New Jersey.
Paterson, New Jersey’s Shadasia Green (16-1, 11 KOs) earned a tough split decision win (93-96, 95-94, 96-93) over Savannah Marshall at the Garden (13-2, 10 KOs) in a 10-round fight, becoming the unified super-middleweight champion and taking home the $250,000 bonus for performance of the night.
“I would love to fight (undisputed heavyweight champion) Clarissa Shields and when the time comes and it’s big, let’s do it,” Green said.
On Saturday at Louis Armstrong, Newark’s Shakur Stevenson (24-0, 11 KOs) retained his WBC lightweight championship by handing William Zepeda (33-1, 27 KOs) the first loss of his career with a dominant 118-110, 119-109, 118-110 victory.
Stevenson said he wants to fight WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis, and a clash between the two undefeated boxers is one many fans want to see.