Amanda Serrano Edges Lucrecia Manzur To Claim 50th Win

Amanda Serrano retained her featherweight titles and reached 50 professional victories on Friday night, but only after surviving a far tougher fight than expected against Lucrecia Manzur at Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula, California.

Serrano won a majority decision by scores of 116-112, 116-112 and 114-114 in the main event of a Most Valuable Promotions card streamed live on TikTok. The result preserved her WBO and WBA featherweight titles, but the closeness of the contest immediately became the story on a night that had been framed around her pursuit of a record-breaking 33rd knockout.

A record bid becomes a struggle

Serrano entered the bout tied with Christy Martin on 32 knockouts, and the expectation around the fight was that she would have a clear chance to move ahead of the Hall of Famer. Instead, Manzur, a 27-year-old Argentine and the WBO’s No 2-ranked contender, pressed the champion from the opening bell and repeatedly landed eye-catching shots during the first half of the fight.

Manzur, who has described Serrano as one of her boxing idols, did not box like an opponent brought in to be part of a milestone night. She came forward, found success with her jab and power punches, and according to the broadcast landed 34 per cent of her power shots, compared with Serrano’s 25 per cent. By the seventh round, Manzur was ahead on all three scorecards.

The scoring pattern in the final stretch will be debated. All three judges gave Serrano the last five rounds, allowing her to turn a deficit into victory and leaving Manzur with a narrow but painful defeat after producing the most significant performance of her career. The bout was also notable as the first women’s fight scheduled for 12 two-minute rounds rather than the standard 10 rounds for women’s title contests.

Serrano, 38, acknowledged the difficulty of the assignment afterwards, saying, “I knew she was tough. She’s young. She’s 27. She’s 10 years younger than me. These girls are getting younger, stronger. Thank God I’m almost out of the game. Let them have fun, but it was truly an honor to be in there with a tough young fighter.”

The Puerto Rican southpaw has built her career on pressure, durability and sustained output, but Manzur’s early success forced her to fight through uncomfortable rounds before she began to settle into a more effective rhythm down the stretch. Serrano also said after the fight that she had hurt her hand, though she did not specify the injury.

The win moved Serrano to 50-4-1 with 32 knockouts, while Manzur fell to 14-5 with seven stoppages. Serrano said the threat posed by Manzur had been clear during preparation, adding, “I trained really hard because I knew it was an opportunity for her. I was told every time I’m given an opportunity, you seize that opportunity. I know all these girls who are fighting me are doing the same thing, so I had to come with my A game.”

Serrano’s late-career legacy chase

The outcome gives Serrano the landmark win she had targeted, even if it did not deliver the knockout record many expected. She had tied Martin’s mark in May and had repeatedly discussed the chance to move clear before facing Manzur, but the night instead underlined how little margin remains as she nears the end of her career.

Serrano’s standing was already secure before Friday. She has won world titles in seven divisions, became undisputed at featherweight by defeating Sarah Mahfoud in 2022, and was part of a trilogy with Katie Taylor that helped lift women’s boxing to a new commercial level. Her partnership with MVP, which began in 2021, has coincided with the most visible phase of her career, including Friday’s TikTok main event.

Reflecting on that platform, Serrano said, “I am so happy and honored that was the first championship main event fight on TikTok, guys. Super excited, super honored.” She also credited MVP when discussing the late stage of her career, saying, “I was going to retire being a seven-division world champion and broke. Thank God MVP came along. They gave me a chance. I seized that opportunity. I made them believe in women’s boxing, and look at us now.”

The immediate question is now how her final fight is handled. Serrano reiterated after the decision that she expects to fight only once more, and the knockout record remains available if she chooses the right opponent and the right setting. “We still got that 33rd knockout. I got one more fight. If I don’t get it, I’m glad that I tied with Christy Martin,” she said. On reaching the win milestone, she added, “I got the 50th win. That’s a milestone on its own.”

Undercard results in Temecula

In the co-main event, 2024 Olympian Jahmal Harvey improved to 4-0 with three knockouts by stopping Hammet Keb in the second round of their scheduled six-round lightweight bout. Harvey dropped Keb with a right hand followed by a left and another right, with the stoppage coming at 2:48 of the round.

Melissa Mortensen also won the vacant WBA junior featherweight title, overcoming a second-round knockdown to edge Mayelli Flores by split decision over 10 rounds. All three judges scored the fight 95-94, with two cards for Mortensen and one for Flores. Avious Griffin added another stoppage to his record in a scheduled 10-round welterweight bout, dropping Jackson Marinez twice before Marinez was stopped after the fifth round.

For Serrano, the next chapter is expected to be the final one: one more fight, one more chance to pass Martin’s knockout total, and one last set of negotiations around where and against whom she closes a career that nearly took a damaging turn against Manzur.