Heather Hardy Vs Amanda Serrano [Vol.II]: Roses Really Smell Like Excrement

I know you’d like to think your shit don’t stink

But lean a little bit closer

See that roses really smell like poo-poo-oo

Yeah, roses really smell like poo-poo-oo

–Outkast, “Roses”

Take a bow, Rose Volante just may start trending.

Not that she’s winning any malodorous contest, we just wanted to, well, clear the air, over the context of a proposed fight between the former WBO lightweight champion and Puerto Rican all-time great Amanda Serrano. 

Opinions seemed to vary as to whether or not that fight — which would’ve been no bed of roses for her or “The Real Deal,” is one Amanda “ducked” according to some colorful pundits, in addition to the burgeoning greatness of Katie Taylor herself. 

It’s a fight surely loaded with thorns for Serrano, but nevertheless Viva La Juicy for fans both male and female alike. Arguably the greatest female boxer ever weighed in: 

“The problem with [some writers], is they think of stuff and thought no one else thought of that either, and write what they think should have been done without knowing if those were the plans and they didn’t workout. Not every article writers put up are exactly that way. Just their view.”

—Amanda Serrano Twitter account, in response to this passage within “Fade To Black“:

“This is just me, but if I’m “The Real Deal” and I really want it with Taylor, who’s a monster (not a Naoya Inoue “Monster”, who just might be fucking Godzilla), I would’ve dropped down to face a brick shithouse in then WBO lightweight champion Rose Volante. After all, as WBO “super” champion, she’s afforded the privilege to face any WBO champion within her grasp. But she passed on Volante, only to watch Taylor, the current undisputed lightweight champion, chop down and mug Volante via 9th round stoppage in March.”    

When Serrano signed to that three-fight deal with DAZN last October, she was a Guinness book of records 6-time world champion and the reigning WBO super lightweight champion having just bested a game Yamila Reynoso on the “Showtime” Shawn Porter Vs Danny “Swift” Garcia undercard at Barclays Center. I immediately thought Eddie Hearn and DAZN would match her with Rose Volante; she’s had a great run with the WBO spanning divisions for a number of years now and it would’ve been (presumably) an easy fight to make.

Because she’s so much more tenured than Katie Taylor, I kinda made an ass out of myself and assumed she had to pass on Volante, because I couldn’t see her wanting to make that fight and being denied because of Taylor. However, according to Serrano, she did in fact want to face Volante, and then face Katie Taylor in an ultimate showdown to culminate her three-fight deal with DAZN.

“I petitioned to fight Rose Volante, but obviously, she got a better offer and took it,” Serrano explained. “I would have loved to go into the Katie fight to unify instead of a total challenger.”

(PUBLISHER NOTE: The explanation came after a public beef, on social…

Back to the more recent… a reader e-mailed a YouTube video from “The Relay” on Sunday night

The first few minutes of this podcast was interesting to listen to, in light of what I’d written a day earlier. I don’t know who this guy is or his partner, only that he sounded a lot like Joe Pesci and made similar remarks on air that I made in print.

From that, I can only guess as to how many in the public are misinformed on things. Maybe that show, part of a Ring Boxing IQ set, would want to hear from Amanda prior to her September 13 megabout with WBO featherweight champion Heather Hardy at Hulu Theater inside of Madison Square Garden.

NY Fights can confirm that the winner of Hardy Vs Serrano will indeed face Katie Taylor to close out the year. 

Since this is an Op-Ed, and because there was such a high number of comments, e-mails and private chatter associated with Fade to Black, I wanted to touch on that three-fight deal with DAZN strictly from a boxing analytical perspective. Joe Pesci and company made some good points, but personally, the onus shouldn’t really be on Amanda — it should be placed on her promoter. In this case, it’s Eddie Hearn who deserves the flack, which he wouldn’t give a shit about.

And under the auspices of what Amanda said with reference to writers sometimes having “just their view”, in my opinion, he wanted Katie Taylor Vs Rose Volante (a powerful true lightweight who can FIGHT), probably with the prevailing thought that Serrano Vs Volante [potentially] messes up Serrano Vs Taylor. And for what? It’s his job to match fighters according to a bottom-line that satisfies investors and fans, which may explain showing Eva Voraberger and Austria a pretty penny for less than a minute opposite a 115 lb WBO super flyweight champion Serrano, who’ll never defend that title.      

Going to battle with Heather Hardy, at the 122 lb female featherweight limit after sustaining no damage in January, leaves her somewhat preserved heading into this match-up after 10 hard rounds with Reynoso last September. By every metric, Amanda should beat Heather. Take a look at her Twitter cover art (and the lede art for this story) for a clue, which reveals her face amid a Mount Rushmore of men’s world champions who’ve won as many titles in as many divisions. Only Manny Pacquiao, an eight-division anomaly for the ages, is ahead of her, ahead of Oscar De La Hoya, Thomas Hearns, Sugar Ray Leonard and Floyd Mayweather. But we can’t discount the importance of weight divisions and why we have them — they matter. And what makes September 13 even more appealing than what their blending of styles should present aesthetically, is whether or not going down to 115 will have adverse effects for Amanda against Heather, who you better fucking believe is coming to win.

In late 2003, the great Roy Jones committed weight skipping suicide by venturing back down to 175 lbs after climbing a heavyweight championship summit against John Ruiz earlier that year. He narrowly escaped Antonio Tarver then, but he was never physically the same. I don’t understand the physiology of a woman, but losing just 5 lbs to face Rose Volante at lightweight, would have been a far tougher fight for Amanda than the one she’d had with Yamila Reynoso at 140. What does she then do in between going to war with Taylor? Drop down to face Heather at 126, survive that (presumably) and go up to face a full strength Taylor for lightweight glory? I don’t know about that gauntlet. Considering her team – which is strong in the areas of sports dieting and modern training – if she beats Heather at 126 lbs (which is NOT a gimme) after climbing back up from 115, she could conceivably be at full strength again herself at 135 for Taylor. 

Arrogant to some and misunderstood by many (Amanda’s had actually championship fights for around $1000 dollars, c’mon), “The Real Deal” knows if she heads into this fight with a gutsy and unbeaten Heather Hardy thinking her stuff doesn’t stink, “The Heat” just might turn her into an old-school Outkast song.