Serrano Tops Tough Tellez To Retain Her Unified Featherweight Titles
Unified featherweight champion Amanda Serrano defended her titles against late substitute Reina Tellez on home soil in Puerto Rico for the first time in almost five years.
The fight came together after Serrano’s original opponent, Erika Cruz, had an atypical finding in her pre-fight drug testing. Undefeated U.S. Olympian Tellez got the call on 15 days’ notice. Unfortunately, after two tries, she came in 0.6 pounds over the weight limit, so she was not eligible to win the title, but the fight went ahead with Serrano’s blessing.
Despite taking the fight on short notice, missing weight, and normally fighting as a bantamweight, Tellez had her moments in the bout. By the midway point, she was sporting a cut under her right eye and had caused a gruesome swelling under Serrano’s right eye. Still, Serrano was in complete control throughout, and despite her large lead, was visibly going for the knockout in the 10th and final round, to the delight of the crowd. She was trying to tie the record of Christy Martin for knockouts by a female fighter at 32 KOs. That record would have to wait, as Tellez proved durable beyond belief. The final scores read 98-92, 97-93 twice, all for Serrano, who improves to 48-4-1 with 31 KOs. Tellez loses her first professional fight, falling to 13-1-1 with 5 KOs.
Stephanie Han weathered a tough first round against legendary Hall-of-Famer Holly Holm in defense of her WBA lightweight crown. Han got into her rhythm and was out-landing Holm by a 3-1 margin. Then an accidental clash of heads caused a gushing cut on Han’s forehead. The ringside doctor advised the referee to stop the fight and go to the scorecards. Referee Luis Pabon halted matters at 1:44 of the seventh round. At the time of the stoppage, the scores were as follows: 69-65, 69-64, and 68-65, all for Han, who is still the WBA lightweight champion. She is now 12-0 with 3 KOs. Holm drops to 34-3-3 with 9 KOs. For their parts, both Han and Holm welcomed a rematch in either one’s hometown.
It was Puerto Rico versus Canada as Krystal Rosado squared off with Tania Walters in a six-round ladies bantamweight clash. For Rosado, it was a quick two-month turnaround from her first loss against former IBF champion Shurretta Metcalf. Rosado was too young (by 15 years), too fast, and too mobile for Walters. The judges agreed with unanimous scores of 60-54, all for Rosado, who improves to 8-1, 2 KOs. Walters falls to 7-4, 2 KOs.
Former IBF bantamweight champion Ebanie Bridges returned from a two-year absence from the ring and having a baby with fellow former world champion Kell Brook, to face unheralded Alexis Araiza in the opening bout of the main card portion of the Serrano-Tellez show in San Juan on January 3, 2026. Other than suffering a bloody nose in round three, Araiza seemed to have things going her way over the first half of the fight, out-landing and out-working Bridges. There was little defense in this fight, and it should be noted that this was the only female fight on the card in which the combatants fought two-minute rounds. This inevitably forced the action to be fast-paced and voluminous. Bridges did her best to turn the tables in the second half of the fight, pushing forward and picking up her own punch output. The judges tabbed it 80-72 and 78-74 twice, all for the upset winner Araiza. She improves to 4-2, 1 KO. Bridges falls to 9-3, 4 KOs.
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