Amanda Serrano gave up a belt to fight 3-minute rounds like men do. Will boxing respond?

Amanda Serrano was overwhelmed with pure joy. Her face lit up as the scorecards were read and several featherweight championship belts were placed around her right shoulder and waist. She had dominated Danila Ramos en route to a unanimous victory in October, strengthening her argument that she was considered the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport and a pioneer.

Serrano’s performance came in the first unified women’s championship fight contested over twelve three-minute rounds in boxing history. Until then, female boxers could only compete in fights of ten (or less) rounds of two minutes each.

“I really enjoyed the three minutes,” Serrano said after the fight in Florida. “I was able to get some more of my punches up and I think I’ll continue with the three minutes. I know the women out there, they saw that it is possible, that we can do it. And me and Danila have shown that we are capable. There will be a lot of women who will say, ‘Yes, they did it. Now I can. ”

The sport was changed that night. At least for matchups with WBA, IBF, WBO, IBO and Ring Magazine championships on the line. Serrano’s WBC belt was off that night, and now the world knows why.

Last week, Serrano announced she would give up her WBC belt because the sanctioning body would not support women fighting under the same rules as their male counterparts.

Serrano, in a brutal individual sport in which women have had far fewer opportunities than men to fight and earn a living, used Instagram to publicly express her dissatisfaction with the WBC.

“If a sanctioning body does not want to give me and my fellow fighters the choice to fight the same way as the men, then I will not fight for that sanctioning body,” she said. “The WBC has refused to develop the sport for equality. Therefore, I renounce their title. Thanks to the sanctioning bodies that have developed for equality! If you want to meet me in the ring, you have a choice. I made mine.”

WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman said his organization made this decision to protect female fighters from potential long-term harm in the ring and issued the following statement to The Athletics:

“Boxing by its very nature requires safety guidelines, rules and protection. Rules are not discriminatory, arbitrary or sexist. Rules are based on science, expertise, fairness and, above all, safety. Our mission has always been and always will be to reduce the risk of anyone entering the ring, male or female, in this martial art that is not a game. The WBC has chosen to respect these rules, principles and values ​​and will continue to investigate women’s boxing, support women’s boxing and protect every woman who participates in this incredible sport.

“We believe every woman should have a choice whether to compete under WBC rules or compete under untested waters with much uncertainty and higher risks to their own lives, the lives of their opponents and the quality of their lives after ring activity.”

Studies over the years have offered varying opinions on the risks to women in boxing.

The WBC partnered with the Pink Concussions Professional Advisory Board, a group of physicians that “focuses on pre-injury education and post-injury medical care for women and girls with brain injuries, including concussions sustained through sports, violence, accidents or military service. Their work concluded that women have been shown to have increased susceptibility, symptom scores, and long-term symptoms of concussion compared to men.

“Whatever the cause, there is still a clear gender difference in concussion rates,” the advisory board said in a statement. “Boxing carries the obvious inherent risk of head injury. One way to help alleviate skull trauma is to adjust the rules, including the number of rounds and the length of the rounds.

In July 2020 judgement published in the Orthopedic Journal of Sports Medicine, 25 studies on this topic were examined. It concluded that “female athletes appear to sustain more severe concussions than male athletes, in part due to a lower biomechanical threshold tolerance for head impacts. In addition, concussions can alter the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis, resulting in worse symptoms and amenorrhea.”

A year later though another study was released in the same publication. A group of 23 amateur fighters took part in 53 training sessions and six matches in boxing and mixed martial arts. They recorded 896 head collisions: 827 during training and 69 during competition. The final results showed that “men experienced a greater number of impacts per practice session than women. However, there was no significant difference between men and women in the magnitude of the impact.”

In many mixed martial arts promotions, such as the UFC, men’s and women’s fights have no differences in duration and round length.

Nakisa Bidarian, founder of Most Valuable Promotions and Serrano’s advisor, said the lack of concrete conclusions is why his fighter is pushing for equal rounds and time.

“If there was a definitive kind of long-term categorical study that said women are more susceptible to concussions than men and that this is very dangerous, Amanda obviously wouldn’t be in favor of that,” he said. The Athletics. “But that simply doesn’t exist.”

He added: “I can’t argue that less time means less injuries. So men should fight fewer rounds and fewer minutes? Should the NFL Reduce Time on the Field? Basketball should have three quarters instead of four?”

More top fighters in women’s boxing have called for three-minute rounds.

Weeks before the Serrano-Ramos fight, a group of more than a dozen female fighters — including Natasha Jonas, Mikaela Mayer, Holly Holm, Heather Hardy, Christy Martin, Ann Wolfe, Laila Ali and Ramla Ali — issued a joint statement via Most Valuable Promotions to support the cause.

“As women, we have had to fight step by step to earn the same equality and respect that is freely granted to men,” the fighters said. “We stand together with the desire and commitment to have the CHOICE to perform on the same stage, with the same rules, as men in professional boxing. We have earned the CHOICE of 3 minute rounds, with 12 rounds of championship fights to showcase our skills and greatness.

Claressa Shields, the undisputed light-middleweight champion, has long been an advocate of more and longer rounds. She told ESPN in 2021 that she believed the discrepancies arose partly to pay female boxers less money.

“I think the biggest thing in women’s boxing is that people say…women shouldn’t get paid the same because we don’t spend the same amount of time fighting,” Shields said. “But I would like more people to realize that we did not introduce those rules; the men did that. So the men need to change those rules so that every world champion women’s boxer can fight for three minutes and twelve rounds.

But like everyone else, I would like to show my full capabilities and not feel rushed! Not just to get KOS!

— Claressa Gwoat Shields (@Claressashields) June 22, 2022

Bidarian said The Athletics that his team had discussions with the WBC a few weeks ago about alternative actions. One idea was to give female fighters the option to add two rounds to championship fights. Bidarian also said his team proposed keeping the women’s title fights at 10 rounds, but that they should contest three minutes each until more data is available. The WBC rejected both suggestions, he said.

Serrano rejected the WBC as a result.

Her next fight has yet to be announced, although Bidarian said she will not return to less time in the ring. For Serrano, the importance of standing up for the future of women’s boxing is crucial.

“She was already one of the greatest boxers in history,” he said. “This just confirms that she is a pioneer and, as her nickname says, the real deal. She just doesn’t speak it; she does it. And I am extremely honored and proud to stand by her side and continue to achieve these things. Her next fight will be 12-3. And that is the path she will continue to follow.”

(Photo: Alex Menendez/Getty Images)