Amanda Serrano defeated Erika Cruz by a unanimous decision in an entertaining brawl to become undisputed featherweight champion.
The official scores were 98-92, 98-92 and 97-93. Boxing Junkie scored it 97-93 for Serrano, seven rounds to three.
The typically busy Cruz (15-2, 3 KOs) threw a high volume of punches to fight Serrano (44-2-1, 30 KOs) on roughly even terms in the first half of a fight that was fought largely toe to toe.
However, her pace slowed in the second half of the fight and she was bothered by blood streaming down her face from a cut on her hairline, caused by an accidental clash of heads.
And Serrano too advantage, settling into a groove in which she consistently landed one-two combinations to her Mexican opponent’s head to pull away on the cards.
Serrano, a seven-division titleholder, entered the fight with the IBF, WBC and WBO belts. She added Cruz’s WBA title on Saturday.
You can read a full report here.
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Alycia Baumgardner of Detroit defeated Elhem Mekhaled of Paris by a unanimous decision to become undisputed junior welterweight champion.
The official scores were 99-89, 99-89 and 98-90.
Baumgardner (14-1, 7 KOs) put Mekhaled (15-2, 3 KOs) down twice in Round 3 and was on the verge of stopping her and hurt the Frenchwoman a few other times but couldn’t put her away.
Baumgardner evidently impressed the judges with flurries of hard, eye-catching shots that the determined, but light-punching Mekhaled couldn’t match.
A full report will follow shortly.
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Junior welterweight prospect Richardson Hitchins (16-0, 7 KOs) of Brooklyn defeated John Bauza (17-1, 7 KOs) of Puerto Rico by a shutout decision in a 10-round bout.
All three judges had the same score, 100-88.
Hitchins, who fought in the 2016 Olympics for Haiti, put the game, but overmatched Bauza down in the first and fourth rounds but battered him throughout the one-sided fight.
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Amanda Serrano and Erika Cruz will fight for the undisputed featherweight championship tonight (Saturday) at Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York (DAZN).
Serrano, a seven-division beltholder, holds the IBF, WBC and WBO 126-pound titles. Cruz is the WBA champ.
Also, in the co-feature, Alycia Baumgardner will defend her IBF, WBC and WBO junior welterweight titles and vie for the vacant WBA belt against Elhem Mekhaled.
The main portion of the show is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT. The main event will take place later in the broadcast.
Boxing Junkie will post the result of the main event and the co-feature immediately after they end. Simply return to this post and refresh when the time comes.
Full coverage – a fight story, photo gallery and analysis – will follow on separate posts the night of the fight and the following day.
Enjoy the fights!
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