Sports Box
In front of 18,500 fans she climbs into the ring and cancels her world championship fight
As of: 12:46 p.m. | Reading time: 2 minutes
Amanda Serrano appeared in the hall wearing white sunglasses
What: REUTERS
Everything is prepared, the hall with 18,500 spectators is sold out, the German challenger Nina Meinke is ready for the biggest boxing match of her life. But then four-time world champion Amanda Serrano comes into the ring wearing white sunglasses. And cancels everything.
Berlin’s Nina Meinke’s World Championship boxing match against four-time world champion Amanda Serrano was canceled at short notice due to Serrano’s eye injury. The 35-year-old from Puerto Rico announced this to the fans in the sold-out hall in San Juan with 18,500 spectators in tears and with white sunglasses on her face. There were loud boos from the audience. The featherweight title fight was unusually scheduled for twelve rounds of three minutes, which would have been a first for Meinke.
“I am devastated,” said the 30-year-old. The mandatory challenger also expressed understanding in the DAZN interview in the ring: “I hope Amanda feels well again soon and recovers quickly.” In the direction of Serrano, she said: “I’m waiting for you, I’m ready when you are . I hope this fight will happen.”
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Serrano’s management announced that Meinke would receive all of the exchange they had previously negotiated. However, it remains to be seen whether the world championship fight will take place later. “I’m totally shocked,” said former world champion Regina Halmich as a DAZN expert: “I’ve been working in boxing for over 35 years now and I have to say: I’ve never experienced it like that before.” It was “really the most unfortunate outcome for this historic women’s boxing match”.
“It raises questions,” says Regina Halmich
Halmich emphasized that health always has priority. But she also criticized: “It raises questions, and I really have to say: It’s not okay, if she already had something wrong with her eye yesterday, that the Meinke team is left in the dark like that.” She feels sorry for the German boxer , who “trained for this fight for so many months.” “It’s just bitter.”
No main fight this evening: Amanda Serrano (l.) and Nina Meinke in the ring
Those: Getty Images via AFP/AL BELLO
Serrano apologized to her fans several times and couldn’t hold back tears. Despite the eye problems that had occurred the day before, she wanted to get into the ring and show her fans “a big show,” “but the doctor wouldn’t let me.” The world champion of the IBF, WBO, WBA and IBO associations explained that she could “hardly see anything”: “I’m so sorry, from the bottom of my heart.”