One of the top women’s pound-for-pound fighters will return on October 27 at the Caribe Royale Resort in Orlando, FL. Women’s undisputed featherweight champion Amanda Serrano (45-2-1, 30 KOs) will defend her titles against WBO mandatory challenger Danila Ramos (12-2, 1 KO) live on DAZN. Aside from the matchup, the event has up the ante as, for the first time in women’s boxing, it will have three-minute rounds and scheduled for 12 rounds. This has never been done in women’s boxing, and Serrano looks to add to her Hall of Famer resume.
Serrano is obviously delighted about the fight's significance and went into it more in the press release by DAZN. “Danila Ramos may be my WBO mandatory challenger, but when we step in the ring, she will understand exactly why I am the undisputed featherweight champion,” said Amanda Serrano. “But this fight is about more than some belts. We have faced a long and hard battle, united as women, to achieve the same pay, respect, and recognition in boxing. Together, on Friday, October 27th, we will make history and prove to the world once again how incredible women’s boxing is and that we are just as tough, dynamic, and capable as any man in the ring, if not more so. This is a fight for women everywhere to be treated the same as their male counterparts.”
This one is to show the world that anything a man can do, a woman can to. This one is to show we equal. This one is for boxing. Championship Boxing. Orlando Florida I can’t wait to make history with you. Live on DAZN for the world to see.@dazn @CelsiusOfficial @cariberoyale pic.twitter.com/UPGqGbnqLQ
— Amanda Serrano (@Serranosisters) September 6, 2023
The 38-year-old Ramos from Brazil, who now resides in Argentina, is excited about the opportunity to not only become an undisputed champion but to do it under a set of rules that has been exclusively for men’s boxing. Her record on BoxRec doesn’t suggest that she poses a power-punching threat to Serrano, but in boxing, you never know.
SHOULD WOMEN FIGHT IN 3 MINUTE, 12 ROUND FIGHTS?
The question has been brought up more and more lately, with fighters like unified minimumweight champion Seniesa Estrada and undisputed middleweight champion Claressa Shields saying that they want three-minute rounds. The argument has been that if there were three-minute rounds, women’s boxing would produce more knockouts, gaining interest from fight fans to support it. That could be true, but the opportunity to prove it hasn’t been there. Estrada faced Marlen Esparza in 2019, and that had three-minute rounds but came under heavy scrutiny by WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman.
The problem is that Sulaiman has been pushing an agenda that there are scientific studies supporting his opinion that women’s boxing should not emulate the men regarding the length of rounds and the number of rounds for championship fights. Sulaiman says the WBC has hired doctors who have done extensive research but has never once shared that study with the media. Also, the research was not verified peer-reviewed, and the personnel's credentials were never released. Sulaiman wants everyone to take his word for it, and in these current times, that’s just not going to cut it.
Should the women fight 3-minute rounds and be scheduled for 12 rounds in title fights? There should be a window (maybe 12 months) where the rules are changed, and data is collected for that period. That data should be collected, and a company should be hired to do the study and provide the same research data with all four sanctioning bodies. The sanctioning fees they collect can be used to pay for something like this, and the results can be made public for everyone to see. This is the only way to settle an argument for or against. Until we get that, the debate will continue on social media.
For now, we have an undisputed fight on October 27, and the question that will more than likely arise afterward will be whether Serrano will revisit the Katie Taylor fight or if the thought of a rematch is heading to bolivian.
