Stephanie Han retained her WBA lightweight title with a majority decision win over Holly Holm tonight in Han’s hometown of El Paso, Texas, but the rematch victory will come with quite a bit of controversy.
Han (13-0, 3 KO) retained on majority decision scores, with two judges scoring the fight for her, both at 96-94. The third judge had it even, 95-95.
Many observes felt the 44-year-old Holm (34-4-3, 9 KO) had done enough to win this time around, after losing a technical decision to Han in January.
Holm, of course, felt she deserved the win, as did ESPN analyst and fellow champion Mikaela Mayer.
“I love Stephanie Han, I think she’s an awesome champion, I think she’s a great person. But I have to be honest and I do think that Holly Holm had a much stronger fight,” Mayer said.
“She made more adjustments, she pushed it when she had to, she kicked it into that second and third gear in moments throughout the 10 rounds. That’s really important in a championship fight. If I were her, I would be disappointed, too, with the decision. I would be expecting to get my hand raised.”
Han said it had been “an honor” to share the ring with Holm, who had no reaction.
“I wasn’t surprised how she brought the fight to me, because I knew that she was prepared for this fight,” Han said. “You should not be disappointed. You’re a legend. One of the best fighters I’ve ever fought. Amazing.”
Holm continued to show no reaction and wouldn’t even look over to Han, who then called out Katie Taylor for a potential fight, hoping to get “revenge” for Taylor beating Han’s sister, Jennifer. She said she would be willing to go to Ireland for the fight.
‘I definitely did more in the fight’
“Honestly, I feel like I won that fight,” Holm said. “There’s always things, even in a win, that I want to do better always. We always want perfection. But I really feel I won the fight, so — and that’s not any disrespect to Han at all. I have a lot of respect for her, it had nothing to do with that, I just felt that fight was mine.”
Holm was asked if she wanted to keep fighting at age 44, and said, “I want to keep fighting if it’s fair, kind of. It’s still a little disheartening sometimes when you put a lot of work in. I have dreams in this sport and everything, and it’s just kind of frustrating sometimes. I just felt like I was dictating the pace, I felt like I was landing clean shots. It’s a fight, I’m not saying that she never hit me, but I definitely did more in the fight and I should have had the win.”
Amanda Serrano ties Christy Martin’s record
Amanda Serrano also fought on the card, easily retaining her WBA and WBO featherweight titles with a quick second round stoppage of over-matched Cheyenne Hanson.
The win was the 32nd stoppage victory of Serrano’s 17-year career, tying the record set by Christy Martin between 1989 and 2012 for most stoppage victories in women’s boxing history.
Martin retired with a record of 49-7-3 (32 KO), while Serrano now stands at 49-4-1 (32 KO).
Serrano’s post-fight speech lasted substantially longer than the fight with Hanson (17-3, 13 KO), who was really jumping from club level boxing into the elite tier, and it was clear quickly that she was well out of her depth.
Part of that post-fight speech segued to promoter Jake Paul, who was booed in El Paso because he is Jake Paul, Professionally Unlikable Person. MVP partner Nakisa Bidarian then had a fit on the microphone, yelling at the fans and saying the card wouldn’t even have happened without Paul. That’s true, really, as Paul and MVP are genuinely good promoters who have put most of their stock into women’s boxing, but it should be said that Paul himself didn’t seem to make much note of the situation at all, because he has built several careers and his fortune on being someone a lot of people don’t like and knows the game he’s playing.
Desley Robinson, Lourdes Juarez retain titles
The night’s other two world title fights also saw champions retain.
Desley Robinson kept her IBF and WBO middleweight titles with a one-sided rout of Mary Spencer, taking scores of 99-91, 100-90, and 100-90.
Lourdes Juarez retained the WBC light flyweight title with a win over minimumweight champ Yokasta Valle. Lourdes won by split decision, with two cards going her way, 95-94 and 98-91, and Valle taking the third, 95-94. General sentiment from observers was that Juarez deserved the win.
