Amanda Serrano’s next fight is fully set, as the WBC and WBO featherweight titleholder announced on social media that she will be facing WBO interim titlist and mandatory challenger Brenda Carabajal.
The fight will be featured on the Aug. 6 Showtime pay-per-view headlined by Jake Paul, which is being marketed as a double main event with Serrano. Paul is still expected to face Tommy Fury, but that is not yet official.
Carabajal was one of the expected contenders for the slot, in part because of her interim WBO status, and in part because they were only three fighters (counting her) at 126 who could really fill the role, and only a couple others who could have maybe moved up from 122.
Serrano (42-2-1, 30 KO) is coming off of a much-debated loss in a legitimately historic fight in Apr. 30, where she dropped a split decision in a tremendous bout against undisputed lightweight champion Katie Taylor.
Matchroom wanted to do a rematch in Ireland, but Serrano and Most Valuable Promotions (Paul’s company) passed on that. That doesn’t mean there will never be a Taylor vs Serrano rematch — it’ll be worth money — but it does mean that Serrano is not going to be Taylor’s big “homecoming” opponent, for fair enough reasons given the industry boxing is.
Carabajal (18-5-1, 9 KO) will be an enormous underdog against Serrano, of course. The 31-year-old “La Pumita,” from Argentina, beat Debora Dionicius by majority decision on May 13 to win the interim belt in San Lorenzo, with very tight scores of 95-95, 96-94, and 96-94 from the judges.
She is also a former interim IBF titleholder, and lost that belt to Sarah Mahfoud in Feb. 2020 in Copenhagen. Mahfoud was elevated to full titleholder status five months later. Carabajal has also twice challenged for lightweight titles, losing shots in 2016 and 2017.
Before her loss to Taylor, Serrano hadn’t dropped a fight since 2012, when she was beaten by Frida Wallberg in Sweden. Fighting with hard featherweight weight limits in her career, Serrano is 9-0 (7 KO). (She’s had other fights at featherweight, but they were early in her career when usually you get a little wiggle room on the weight.)