Puerto Rican champion Amanda Serrano is in hot water following a late notice of her being unable to compete in the main event against German challenger Nina Meinke due to an apparent injury. The event, promoted by Most Valuable Promotions (MVP), continued as normal with co-founder of MVP Jake Paul going on to main event in place of Serrano. However, dissatisfaction surrounds the handling of the event due to the late announcement of Serrano’s inability to participate on the night. The event was held at the Coliseo Jose Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on March 2nd, and was further broadcasted through DAZN.
While the exact circumstances surrounding the injury that Amanda Serrano (46-2-1, 30 KO’s) suffered was initially unclear, it became known to viewers and attendees of the event that Serrano would be unable to compete against Nina Meinke (18-3, 4 KO’s) in the defense of her WBA, WBO and IBF featherweight titles.
The timing of this decision was abrupt, with fans being notified of the change before the co-main event between Jake Paul (9-1, 6 KO’s) and Ryan Bourland (17-3, 6 KO’s) who fought in a cruiserweight match scheduled for eight rounds. The Paul fight subsequently turned into main event, with Jake Paul ending the event quickly by stopping his opponent in just the first round.
Like his last match, the influencer-turned-boxer made quick work of his foe but a similar cloud of controversy hung above Paul’s victory due to the out-of-shape appearance of his opponent and the seemingly unpreparedness to fight given there was little to no resistance from Bourland, and his attacks seemed just as inefficient.
Though Bourland had nineteen fights prior to facing Jake Paul, he notably hadn’t fought since September of 2022 and looked unready throughout the first round. Regardless, Paul notched up another win against a professional boxer, with Bourland having been a Golden Gloves champion during his amateur career, to signify his improvement in the sport.
Paul started off strong, pressuring Bourland early and maintaining his pressure for the entirety of the round. In the closing minute, Paul had cornered Bourland, allowing him to launch successive combinations which Bourland had no answer to. The referee eventually stepped in to stop the fight, and the fight was subsequently ruled a technical knockout (TKO) victory for Jake Paul―marking his second knockout/stoppage victory in a row.
Puerto Rican WBO junior flyweight champion Jonathan Gonzalez (28-3-1, 14 KO’s) fought the match prior against fellow countryman Rene Santiago (12-4, 9 KO’s). With Gonzalez staving off the effects of inactivity following an absence of the ring for almost two years―since last fighting in November of 2022, Gonzalez’ lack of activity showed as he was engaged in a tough fight against Santiago who had been on a three-match win streak prior to facing Gonzalez.
The match was noted for its highly evenly-matched nature, with Gonzalez clearly struggling rust against Santiago who seemed fitter and better prepared. However, Gonzalez’ elite-level boxing ability allowed him to scrape by with the required win, with the judges’ scorecards of 116-112, 115-113 and 117-111 not accurately reflecting what was a bout that was closer.
Moving forward, Jonathan Gonzalez would likely benefit from being more active following a disappointing year of 2023 where a unification fight planned against Japanese WBA & WBC junior flyweight champion Kenshiro Teraji (23-1, 14 KO’s) evaporating following an bout of pneumonia that Gonzalez suffered. Taking Gonzalez’ most recent performance into account, the Puerto Rican may yet benefit from another fight to regain his full ability prior to facing Teraji.
However, Teraji himself seems vulnerable following a close-knit controversial title defense victory over Carlos Canizales (26-2-1, 19 KO’s) in January which saw Teraji win by majority decision (MD). Perhaps, with both fighters having shown their shortcomings and proven to be vulnerable, both fighters might be willing to explore each other’s weaknesses in the near future to set up a unification fight again.
The success of Jake Paul’s victory and the entertaining bout between Gonzalez and Santiago was still marred by the late cancellation of the Serrano-Meinke bout which would see Amanda Serrano defend her titles against an opponent in Nina Meinke who would have been the best challenger for Serrano at this point in time.
With the women’s featherweight still relatively devoid of real competition, a victory over Meinke―who has challenged for a world title before when she faced [and lost to] Katie Taylor () in 2017, would have been a more satisfying and commendable victory for Serrano.
Unfortunately, the cancellation of the match―which had been scheduled for twelve rounds and three minutes per round [the second such match to occur in women’s boxing], prevented either fighter from proving their hard-earned skills in the ring. While Meinke has been confirmed to be compensated fully [and receive the full purse including Serrano’s] due to the abrupt late cancellation of the match, the timing of the announcement of Serrano’s withdrawal has left many questions due to Amanda Serrano having been perceived to have known she would be unable to compete the day prior.
During Friday’s weigh-ins which both Serrano and Meinke attended, Serrano had purportedly already been dealing with eye issues, yet apparently the doctors only identified the problem on the day of the fight. In an attempt to clarify what had occurred, co-founder of MVP Nakisa Bidarian attempted to explain the situation during the post-match press conference.
“Ultimately, the main event was not meant to be. What happened there was [that] on Thursday night [February 29th], Amanda [Serrano] had her hair done,” Bidarian stated.
“On Friday, while going on run, a chemical went into her eye. That was why at the weigh-in she was wearing glasses; we were trying to determine what happened. She visited a doctor Friday evening, and throughout all of Saturday, we were trying to get her eye into a place where she was comfortable fighting.
“She came to the arena to fight, and when the [Puerto Rican] commission’s medical doctors examined her, they said she was unfit to fight. The commission would not allow her to enter the ring, and do what she wanted to do most which is fight in front of her fans.“
While Bidarian did not hesitate to emphasize that the commission had barred her from fighting, the issue at hand pertains to the knowledge that MVP and Serrano held of the injury a day prior to the fight. The fact Serrano wore sunglasses to hide the purported eye injury, according to Bidarian himself, already indicated there was a low chance of Serrano continuing to fight.
As Jake Paul himself would state during the presser, Serrano’s cornea was exposed and the skin around her eyes had burned off due to chemicals she had endured. Given the veracity of such an injury, and MVP apparently knew about the injury on Friday, Serrano seemed unfit to fight the day before the event, yet the cancellation transpired late during the event the next day.
It is also unclear when the Puerto Rican commission’s doctors discovered her injury, but it is telling that they had only conducted the medical examination when Amanda Serrano had showed up to the arena; which would have happened hours before her main event against Nina Meinke. Though neither the commission or MVP can be outright blamed for what occurred, the prior knowledge that MVP held of the circumstances suggest they had purposefully waited until the last moment to announce Serrano to be unable to compete.
In that regard, MVP may be held liable for potentially misleading customers by not immediately revealing that the Serrano-Meinke fight would be cancelled, waiting until the stadium was fully filled before the announcement of Serrano’s injury was made. As Bidarian would himself state during the press conference, the event gained a reported $1,511,000 million due to ticket sales, even more implying there was a monetary benefit that led to the late announcement of Serrano’s withdrawal.
Further compounding with the suspected misleading of Serrano’s injury was MVP’s own statement made on the day of the fight where they admitted to having known about the injury the day prior:
While a refund will be granted to those that were in attendance and seek it, it has not been confirmed by MVP whether these concern full refunds; and presumably these refunds will not cover such things as travel and hotel costs.
Ultimately, both Amanda Serrano and MVP were likely aware of her being unable to compete, yet the event commenced as normal with only a late notice to signify the important cancellation of the main event. Had the circumstances surrounding the injury been announced earlier, the gate receipts would foreseeably have been less as there would be fewer attendees due to Serrano being the main attraction, and thereby it would have prevented MVP from achieving the numbers they did last Saturday.
Understanding the backlash that she was facing, Amanda Serrano did put out a message on Twitter where she expressed her heartfelt thanks for all the support she received, and apologized profusely for the cancellation of her bout with Meinke.
