Serrano steamrolls Morgan, ‘H2O’ Sylve suffers brutal knockout loss

Amanda Serrano scored a stoppage win in a massive mismatch tonight, putting Stevie Morgan away in the second round when the referee rightly called a stop to the one-sided action.

Serrano (47-2-1, 31 KO) was in her 50th professional fight tonight, and got her first stoppage win since 2021. She was not defending her featherweight titles, as this fight took place at 140 lbs, where Serrano will meet Katie Taylor in a Nov. 15 rematch for Taylor’s undisputed super lightweight championship.

Morgan falls to 14-2 (13 KO).

Fast Take: An absurd mismatch that had no business happening. Morgan came in 14-0 in the rings of Colombia, where male fighters have long built up bogus records (and knockout percentages), and 0-1 in the United States, and she did not belong in a ring with Amanda Serrano, period. The only purpose this fight served, other than a payday, was a training camp and getting Serrano’s weight set up well ahead of November and Katie Taylor. It wasn’t as bad as Seniesa Estrada vs Miranda Adkins, but that’s about the best you can say.

Also on the undercard, Most Valuable Promotions’ top prospect Ashton “H2O” Sylve was brutally knocked out by Lucas Bahdi in a pretty notable upset.

Sylve (11-1, 9 KO) was pretty dominant in the fight, but Bahdi (17-0, 15 KO) hung in there and then got the huge win in the sixth round. The 30-year-old Canadian was, frankly, a hand-picked sort of opponent for a prospect on the rise, the sort of matchup you see all the time. Bahdi figured to be a useful stepping stone for Sylve, but that’s just not how it turned out.

Bahdi caught Sylve with a clean right hand in the sixth round, and Sylve was pretty much knocked out right there, he was going to go down. But a left hook came right behind that right hand, landing even more flush, and Sylve was knocked clean out.

Fast Take: Obviously a major setback for the 20-year-old Sylve, who was looking sharp and in control, but Bahdi stayed in the fight, looked for openings, and made something happen. It’s going to be a strong contender for Knockout of the Year, it was vicious. Sylve is absolutely young enough to bounce back and go on to be the fighter he was hyped to be, but you also just never know how a fighter will react to something like this, and the youth aspect can work against someone mentally in this situation, too. Hoping it works out, though, he’s obviously a talented fighter with upside. As for Bahdi, hope he gets something decent from this, and if he’s available, I could see Golden Boy tripping over themselves to get him in a ring with Floyd Schofield. They’ll be confident in their guy Schofield, and now there’s something to hype if he were to beat Bahdi.