For the primary time since 2007, two girls fighters could possibly be within the ring for a title struggle simply so long as their male counterparts.
When undisputed featherweight champion Amanda Serrano defends her WBA, IBF and WBO belts towards Danila Ramos on Oct. 27 on the Caribe Royale Resort in Orlando, the 2 will struggle 12 three-minute rounds, as an alternative of the official 10 two-minute rounds for title fights in girls’s boxing.
Serrano will defend her titles towards Ramos, the WBO obligatory challenger, in a struggle accepted by all three sanctioning our bodies and the Florida Athletic Fee, and placed on by Most Beneficial Promotions, run by Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian.
“This struggle is about greater than some belts,” Serrano stated in an announcement. “We’ve confronted an extended and exhausting battle, united as girls, to attain the identical pay, respect, and recognition in boxing.
“Collectively, on Friday, October 27, we are going to make historical past and show to the world as soon as once more how unbelievable girls’s boxing is and that we’re simply as robust, dynamic, and succesful as any man within the ring, if no more so. It is a struggle for girls all over the place to be handled the identical as their male counterparts.”
Each the variety of rounds and size of rounds for championship fights have been points in girls’s boxing for years — usually introduced up by lots of the high fighters within the sport. When Serrano fought Katie Taylor for Taylor’s undisputed light-weight titles in 2022 — a struggle that grew to become the most important occasion in girls’s boxing historical past — Serrano lobbied for three-minute rounds however talked about it publicly solely after contracts had been signed. Serrano-Taylor was fought with 10, two-minute rounds.
There have been three-minute spherical title fights earlier than — notably when Seniesa Estrada stopped Marlen Esparza within the ninth spherical for the WBA interim flyweight title in November 2019, however Estrada-Esparza was 10 rounds. Different high-level fighters, together with pound-for-pound No. 1 and present undisputed middleweight champion Claressa Shields, have advocated for both 12 rounds or three-minute rounds — or each — previously.
In 2021, High Rank promoter Bob Arum informed ESPN, “if I may get three-minute rounds, I might signal a variety of girls.” He believes it may add extra pleasure and alternative. Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe additionally informed ESPN in 2021 he believed the longer rounds would enhance reputation in girls’s boxing. Former Golden Boy matchmaker Robert Diaz additionally informed ESPN in 2021 he felt world title fights ought to be three-minute rounds.
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman informed ESPN in 2021 he wouldn’t sanction three-minute spherical fights as a result of he considers it a security challenge. He stated his group, of which Serrano holds their featherweight title, wouldn’t change his stance till “there’s clear medical analysis clearance to do any modifications.”
In MMA, women and men struggle the identical variety of rounds and identical variety of minutes — three five-minute rounds for undercard fights and 5 five-minute rounds for championship fights and primary occasions. It is a step towards giving equal preventing steadiness to girls in boxing as males have.
Serrano (45-2-1, 30 KO) final fought in August when she defeated Heather Hardy by unanimous choice in Dallas to defend her undisputed featherweight title. The seven-division world champion can be making the sixth protection of her WBO title and second protection of her WBA belt. Aside from a split-decision loss to Taylor as a challenger to Taylor’s undisputed light-weight championship in 2022, Serrano has not misplaced a struggle since 2012 and she or he’s by no means been overwhelmed as a featherweight, her pure preventing weight.
Ramos (12-2, 1 KO), 38, grew to become the obligatory challenger in August when she defeated Brenda Karen Carabajal by cut up choice in Buenos Aires. She has gained her final 4 fights — however three have come by cut up or majority choice. She’s fought for interim titles 3 times — beating Carabajal and dropping to Katharina Thanderz and Elhem Mekhaled. Ramos has by no means been stopped in her profession.
On this struggle, Ramos can be a part of historical past.
The final identified main 12 three-minute spherical girls’s fights got here in 2007, when Layla McCarter defeated Donna Biggers on Jan. 5 and Melissa Hernandez on Feb. 14, each in Las Vegas. Neither one went the space as McCarter stopped Biggers within the second spherical and Hernandez within the eighth spherical. Now, on a much bigger stage — the struggle can be televised as a primary occasion on DAZN — a 12 three-minute struggle can be occurring once more.
“Preventing Amanda Serrano for 12 three-minute rounds for a unified championship is ready to interrupt the obstacles that we girls have been seeking to do for a few years,” Ramos stated in an announcement. “We’ll go down in historical past and within the books.”