Highlights: Serrano routs Hardy in rematch, more from Paul vs Diaz undercard

Amanda Serrano completely dominated Heather Hardy in their rematch on the Jake Paul vs Nate Diaz undercard.

Amanda Serrano dominated her rematch with Heather Hardy tonight on the Paul vs Diaz PPV undercard, winning a clear decision over 10 rounds of one-sided but spirited action.

Scores were 99-91, 100-90, and 100-90. Bad Left Hook unofficially had the fight 100-90 for Serrano.

The win means that Serrano (45-2-1, 30 KO) retains her undisputed featherweight championship

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Serrano came out of the gates fairly quickly here, looking to land hard shots on Hardy (24-3, 4 KO) from the get-go, and it seemed early as if she might really press for a stoppage. But when she didn’t get it in round one — which would have been a headline — that aggression faded somewhat.

She still landed a lot of good, clean shots, but never pressed as much as she could have, and in a mid-round interview from ringside, Serrano’s trainer said he wasn’t instructing his fighter to go for the knockout.

The fight played like spirited sparring in some respects, as it’s well-known and was even the promotional focus that the two are good friends, and that Serrano was gifting Hardy this rematch in order to get Heather a six-figure payday. This is not to say that Hardy did not try her best to win, because she did, but it was a mismatch at this point, even more than in 2019 when Serrano comfortably beat Hardy.

“She’s as tough as they come, she never gives up,” Serrano said of Hardy. “Heather’s a hell of a fighter. She’s as tough as they come, we knew that. I love Heather.”

“I gave everything I had today,” Hardy said. “I gave everything for three months. Everything. I have no excuses. That was everything.”

Serrano basically declined to answer a question about whether or not she would like to fight undisputed junior lightweight champion Alycia Baumgardner, who was ringside calling the bout for DAZN. Recently, Serrano “promised” her fans a rematch with Katie Taylor, but that wouldn’t come until the spring of 2024 at the earliest, with Taylor facing Chantelle Cameron again on Nov. 25.

Serrano vs Hardy 2 highlights

More results and highlights

• Chris Avila UD-6 Jeremy Stephens (59-55, 59-55, 60-54): The two MMA lads had themselves a boxing match of sorts, and Avila (4-1, 0 KO) dominated the pretty well cooked but still tough Stephens (0-1-1) over six rounds. They came to fight. It wasn’t boring. But it was one-sided and had no greater meaning in the boxing world, serving mainly to be a Logan Paul Travel Buffer as he tries to get from Detroit, where he opened SummerSlam for WWE, to Dallas to see his brother fight.

• Ashton Sylve KO-4 William Silva (2:59): A terrific showing overall for the 19-year-old Sylve, who goes to 10-0 (9 KO), and if you absolutely need to do so, I say just ignore his connection to Jake Paul, his promoter. If you can’t take anyone who’s met Jake Paul seriously, just forget that, because this isn’t some social media kid, this is a serious, high-level lightweight prospect with speed, power, skills, and a great composure for someone so young. Sylve dropped Silva (30-5, 18 KO) in the second on a body shot, then went back there for the knockout late in the fourth. He’s absolutely someone you should have on your radar.

• Shadasia Green UD-10 Olivia Curry (99-91, 100-90, 100-89): A strong showing for Green (13-0, 11 KO), and I want to really make clear that I don’t think her vaunted power got “exposed” here at all. What happened is that Curry (7-2, 2 KO) showed an excellent chin, because Green landed the same sort of bombs that put Elin Cederroos out, it’s just that Curry refused to go down. She was rocked plenty, and clearly, but she is simply a tough, tough woman, and deserves credit for a good approach and a really good effort. We unofficially had this 98-92 for Green. Shadasia is still a long ways off of being ready for Claressa Shields, and maybe even Savannah Marshall, and those are the clear big dogs at 160/168. What’s tough is there isn’t a lot of “in the middle” opponents between this level and Shields/Marshall to learn against, and she already stopped one of them (Cederroos).

• Alan Sanchez UD-8 Angel Beltran (77-75, 78-74, 79-73): We unofficially had it 79-73 for Sanchez, too. The CompuBox numbers were fairly close, but Sanchez (23-5-1, 10 KO) was just the better fighter here in pretty much every round, with a good effort from Beltran (17-2, 11 KO) that just wasn’t enough. A fun scrap that you’d expect if you’ve seen Sanchez before, he’s no contender but he comes to fight and this is basically peak level for the 32-year-old to have success.