Amanda Serrano tied Christy Martin's long-standing record for the most knockouts in women's boxing history on Saturday night, stopping Cheyenne Hanson in the second round in El Paso, Texas, and keeping her WBA and WBO featherweight titles. The 37-year-old now has 32 wins by knockout after becoming the first fighter to stop Hanson inside the distance.
The result gave Serrano another title defense and put her name next to one of the sport's earliest power punchers, a mark that had stood for years as a measuring stick in women's boxing. Hanson, 28, had never before been stopped inside the distance, but Serrano broke that run quickly and cleanly.
That kind of milestone is the reason Serrano's fights still draw attention beyond the belts. Her record now sits beside Martin's, but the larger story around Serrano has never been simple dominance alone. She has four career losses, and three of them came against Katie Taylor, the rival she has long wanted again and the name that still shadows every big night she has in the ring.
The rest of the card in Texas underlined how thin the margins were for some of the other title fights. Holly Holm missed out on the WBA lightweight title when Stephanie Han beat her in the co-main event, with one judge scoring it even at 95-95 and the other two seeing it 96-94 for Han. Desley Robinson kept her IBF and WBO middleweight belts with a wide unanimous decision over Mary Spencer, and Lourdes Juarez held on to her WBC light-flyweight title by split decision against Yokasta Valle.
Foster also beat Raymond Ford by majority decision to retain his WBC super-featherweight title at the Fertitta Center in Houston, rounding out a night in which the champions mostly stayed in place, even as Serrano added a line that now belongs in the record book. The unanswered question is whether the next headline for her is another defense or finally the Taylor fight she has chased through so much of her career.
