American former world champion Heather Hardy is set to battle the undisputed women’s Featherweight champion Amanda Serrano inside the ring on August 5th, a decision that has drawn some eyes given Hardy’s age, despite Serrano’s own clarification of why she chose Hardy as her next opponent. Skye Nicolson, a quick-rising Featherweight contender has expressed her own opinions surrounding the matter, which prompted a quick response from Heather Hardy.
“Hmmm. Wants the big money fights… yet is fighting Heather Hardy next (who she beat clearly four years ago), who also turned down fighting me at MSG earlier this year because “she can’t make Featherweight anymore”, and is now fighting Serrano at FEATHERWEIGHT.” Came Australian contender Skye Nicolson’s (7-0, 0 KO’s) response following an interview that Amanda Serrano (44-2-1, 30 KO’s) held with sports journalist Ariel Helwani.
Skye Nicolson, who is currently signed to Matchroom and has been making waves in the women’s Featherweight division in recent years, alluded to apparent attempts by her team or promoter for her to face Heather Hardy (24-2, 4 KO’s) at the Madison Square Garden Arena earlier this year. Nicolson fought at that venue on February 4th of this year where she ended up as the victor by UD after defeating fellow contender Tania Alvarez (8-1, 1 KO’s).

However, Hardy was quick to clarify why she had neglected to fight Nicolson.
“B****, they offered me 25k to get down to Featherweight in six weeks with no belts. F*** out of my face, you got literally NOTHING I want. You weren’t worth going on a diet for.” Heather Hardy responded fiercely on her own social media account.
Hardy potentially exposed an attempt by Matchroom or Nicolson’s team to catch her at her worst by having her move down two weight divisions within a short amount of time. Though Heather Hardy’s fight is set to take place at Featherweight where Amanda Serrano holds all the four (or five when including The Ring’s lineal title) major belts, the American has noticeably campaigned at Lightweight for the past couple of years, and hasn’t fought at 126 lbs since her defeat to Serrano in 2019.
Amanda Serrano was quick to give her own thoughts to the two through her own Twitter on why she had chosen Heather Hardy.
“Heather Hardy gave me a shot when I needed it. She didn’t have to, so now I’m in a position to honor my word Plus the B is tuff ass hell it’s worth the scrap. I get it and I’m not mad at Skye, she’s a young fighter on the come up trying to get a shot. Everything in due time tho.” Was Amanda Serrano’s pointedly more calm reply to the brief banter between Nicolson and Hardy.
Amanda Serrano, who had already explained the reason as to why she was fighting Heather Hardy when the fight was first announced, was previously set to face Katie Taylor (22-1, 6 KO’s) on May 20th in Taylor’s home country of Ireland. However, an injury cast her aside for her rematch with Katie Taylor.
That same rematch might not be on the cards, according to Amanda Serrano herself, who explained in her interview with Ariel Helwani that the rematch would be heavily dependent on the outcome of the rematch that Katie Taylor is planning on holding with Chantelle Cameron (18-0, 8 KO’s) in the wake of her first professional defeat to the Brit last weekend.
“(It) may be delayed if she comes out on top with the rematch (by) beating (Chantelle) Cameron, which I don’t think that will happen, but if she does then maybe the rematch with me will happen.” Serrano responded to Helwani’s question on the continuation on the planned rematch between her and Katie Taylor. “I just hope that Taylor does the right thing and she wins.“

The first match between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano occurred on the 30th of April in 2022 which saw Taylor scrape by with a split-decision win. Though no official announcement has been made regarding a rematch between Chantelle Cameron and Katie Taylor, Taylor seems to have plans to avenge her first professional loss.
If the rematch between Cameron and Taylor commences, a rematch with Amanda Serrano would be put in doubt; especially if Katie Taylor ends up losing. Amanda Serrano herself feared as much, and expressed great doubts as to the possibility of a rematch if Taylor failed to net a win in her hypothetical rematch with Cameron.
“I don’t think it’s a good fight.” Serrano started after being posed the question on the status of her rematch with Taylor in the case the Irish champion would lose again to Chantelle Cameron.
“Our rematch is definitely off the table, and I don’t know what Katie’s gonna want to do after that, if she’s going to retire or she’s… I don’t know. I know my career is going to continue.“
If a rematch would occur, there’s strong possibility that Katie Taylor would need to defend her titles at Lightweight against Cameron ― unlike their first match when she faced Chantelle Cameron at Super Lightweight for all of the Brit’s world titles ― as Cameron hinted herself after declaring that the rematch would be “on her terms”, and after expressing her dissatisfaction at constantly needing to put her titles on the line in her post-match interview.