Undefeated Amanda Serrano Fights For NABF Title

By: Bob Trieger

NEW YORK (June 6, 2011) – Undefeated super featherweight Amanda “The Real Deal” Serrano fights at home for her first professional title Saturday night, June 11 at the historic Roseland Ballroom in New York City.

The 23-year-old Serrano (9-0-1, 5 KOs), a native of Puerto Rico who is now fighting out of Brooklyn, faces Jennifer Scott in an eight-round bout for the vacant North American Boxing Federation title.

“I’m the best female fighter in New York City and I’m going to prove it June 11th,” said the slick-boxing younger sister of former world lightweight contender, Cindy Serrano. “My sister fought for a couple of titles and I won the New York Golden Gloves, but this is my first title shot as a pro and I’m ready and prepared to win. My goal is to win the world title and then fight in Puerto Rico. (Amanda was born in Puerto Rico and moved to Brooklyn when she was one)

“This is my first fight in New York City as a professional boxer. I’m very excited to know that I’m going to have a lot of family, friends and fans there supporting me. I want them all to see how far I’ve progressed. It’s going to be a fun night.”

Serrano would have preferred to fight the former NABF champion, Maureen Shea, but she was stripped of the belt. “She has no heart,” Serrano blasted Shea. “She was offered a fight against me but turned it down and was stripped. Maybe if she has a heart transplant we can fight in the future. It would have been nice – Brooklyn vs. Bronx – if she took the fight.

“I want to be the face of women’s boxing. I can box and brawl. I want to be a role model for girls to look up to. My opponent for this fight doesn’t have a great record (2-3, 2 KOs) but she’s tough and coming to fight. She’s an undefeated MMA fighter, too. I never take anybody lightly. Look what happened to Maureen Shea. She was knocked out by a fighter with a 2-2 record. My last opponent (Ela Nunez) had never been knockout until I stopped her and I want to be the first to knockout Scott.”

Serrano also wants to be proudly displaying her new NABF title belt around her waist the day after her fight, hopefully, on a float in the New York City Puerto Rican Day Parade.

“No female fighter sacrifices like Amanda,” Boxing 360 Founder & CEO Mario Yagobi noted. “She’s an exciting fighter with a great future. Bob (Duffy, Boxing 360 Director of Boxing) worked very, very hard to make this title fight happen. We’d like to thank the NABF for sanctioning it. Amanda is working hard to be world champion. No woman dedicates herself to boxing like Amanda. Boxing is her life.”

Amanda is presently rated No. 4 by independent source WBAN, as well as No. 6 by the WIBA.

“Amanda’s main goal is to win a world title and this is her first step,” Duffy commented. “She’s fighting at home the night before the Puerto Rican Day parade. I want to thank the show’s promoters, Lou DiBella and Gary Shaw, for having this title fight on their card.”

Other members of Boxing 360’s stable include USBA heavyweight champion Maurice “Sugar Moe” Harris, WBC #3 super bantamweight Leon “Hurry Up” Moore, former IBF super middleweight champion Alejandro “Naco” Berrio, WBC Caribbean & NY State super middleweight champion Lennox “2 Sharpe” Allen, NY State champion welterweight Danny Sostre, Dominican lightweight champion Eudy “AK47” Bernardo, KO king Tyrone Brunson, Nick “Hands of Gold” Casal, middleweight prospect DonYil Livingston, Joshua “The Juice” Harris, Emad Ali, Mike Mollo, “King” David Estrada and Angel “Toro” Hernandez.

Go to www.Boxing360.com for more information about Serrano, Boxing 360 or any of its other fighters.

Carl Froch vs. Glen Johnson Post Fight Quotes & Attendance

Official Attendance: 2,286

Carl Froch, WBC Super Middleweight Champion/Super Six Finalist:

“Everyone is finally starting to acknowledge what I’ve done in successive fights.”

“I wasn’t 100% happy with my performance, because I’m the kind of guy who likes to unload my shots. I didn’t do that enough tonight, but I did enough to win.”

“Johnson is a big, strong light heavyweight and he can hang in with everyone. He is a proud, strong man. He was fading towards the end because I was hitting him.”

“It was a professional performance tonight, which I’m proud of. I did enough to win without taking too many risks.”

“I’m going to stay on the ball. I will have a little bit of a rest, and I’ll go back and see my baby boy Rocco. But, I will stay straight and stay fit.”

“You always learn in every fight. Tonight I solidified that I can box on my last foot and give Ward problems doing that.”

Eddie Hearn, Froch’s Promoter:

“Carl deserves the utmost respect from everyone in the world. He is a real fighter. We don’t have enough people like Carl Froch in boxing.”

“We’re going to build his fight with Andre Ward for what it is: a unification fight between the two best super middleweights in the world.”

“I don’t think there has been anyone who has fought, successively, so many top opponents. Carl is just a fighter.”

Glen Johnson:

“My team has done a wonderful job with my career every since I teamed up with them. We have come up on the short end of the stick sometimes, and they have never given up on me.”

“For me, I will just go home and put more effort into it and see what I can bring next time.”

“It was a close fight. There was a lot of give and take. He hit me with some solid, clean shots.”

“Carl can fight. He is tough. We look forward to seeing a great fight between the two men who have made it to the finals.”

Lou DiBella, Johnson’s Co-Promoter:

“If you don’t love Glen Johnson then you don’t love boxing. It is an honor and privilege to be his promoter and to be his friend. You never get less than 100% from Glen Johnson.”

“Everyone on this team respects the heck out of Carl Froch. If Andre Ward thinks he will have an easy night, he is very wrong.”

“It was a very close fight going into the seventh or eighth round. Glen tried to take him out with one punch and Carl adjusted.”

Leon Margules, Johnson’s Co-Promoter:

“People who came here tonight saw a spectacular fight between two great warriors and champions. Anyone who saw the fight and knows boxing can appreciate the kind of battle Glen and Carl had.”

“For a 42-year-old athlete to fight twelve hard rounds like that is a spectacular feat.”

“I’m not disappointed in Glen’s performance; I’m only disappointed in the result.”

Zsolt “Firebird” Erdei Scores Impressive Sixth Round Stoppage Of Former World Champion Byron Mitchell

By: Alex Dombroff, Dibella Entertainment

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ (June 4, 2011) – Unbeaten former two time world champion Zsolt “Firebird” Erdei scored a sixth round technical knockout over former world champion Byron Mitchell on Saturday night in front of throngs of Hungarian supporters who chanted and cheered their man to victory.

Erdei vs. Mitchell served as the chief undercard bout to the Super Six semifinal clash between WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch and Glen Johnson from the Adrian Phillips Ballroom at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

Erdei (33-0, 18 KOs) came out aggressively from the opening bell, never letting Mitchell (28-8-1, 21 KOs) put together any punches of his own. It was in stark contrast to Erdei’s last outing, also at Boardwalk Hall, where Erdei put on a dominant boxing clinic against veteran Sampson Onyango.

In the sixth round, Erdei’s activity put Mitchell on the canvas twice, the second time prompting referee Eddie Cotton to call a halt to the action at 1:58 of the round.

Erdei credited the rejuvenated performance him being comfortable fighting for the second straight time in America.

“The first fight, I was a little homesick,” said the Hungarian native, who spent most of his pro career fighting in Europe. “This time I had more preparation and more time to get used to being here. It showed in the ring.”

Looking ahead, Erdei, who held the WBO cruiserweight title from 2004-2009 before giving it up for a brief stint at cruiserweight, many possibilities in the talent-rich 175 lbs. division. A chance run-in just hour before his fight had his mind on one man in particular.

“I met Bernard Hopkins at the bakery in Caesars just before the fight,” said Erdei. “He was a real gentleman and we have a great mutual respect for each other. It would be an honor to fight him.”