A few minutes after Amanda Serrano crushed Calixta Silgado in a first-round knockout victory to retain her womens featherweight world title on July 30 on the Carl Frampton-Leo Santa Cruz undercard, Serrano ran into Showtime Sports general manager Stephen Espinoza in the tunnel at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.Espinoza, who has become more and more a fan of womens boxing, congratulated Serrano, who would have loved for the fight to be televised on Showtime.Espinoza told her that he was interested in airing not only her fight but other womens bouts in the future, and he all but promised her that in 2017 he would find a way to get her on the air.On Friday, Espinoza delivered on his promise when Showtime announced that it would air Serranos bout on Jan. 14, also at Barclays Center, on Showtime Extreme (7 p.m. ET/PT), where it will televise preliminary fights on the Showtime card headlined by the Badou Jack-James DeGale super middleweight world title unification fight.Puerto Rico native Serrano (30-1-1, 23 KOs), who lives in Brooklyn, vacated her featherweight belt and moved down in weight and knocked out Alexandra Lazar in the first round on Oct. 18 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to win a vacant womens junior featherweight world title. Serrano, 28, will defend that 122-pound crown against former two-division world titleholder Yazmin Rivas (35-9-1, 10 KOs) in the first womens world title bout scheduled to air on English-language national television in nearly a decade.Its been one of our goals to get womens boxing back on Showtime, Espinoza told ESPN. Im a little embarrassed we didnt do it sooner. But over the last two to three years its been proven that once again the market is absolutely ready for womens combat sports. Just look at MMA, and its not just Ronda Rousey, but other womens fighters, who have built followings.Espinoza pointed out that female MMA stars such as Rousey, Miesha Tate, Cris Cyborg Justino and Gina Carano all got early exposure on Showtime-televised cards. Showtime also is where Christy Martin fought several times in the late 1990s as a trailblazer in womens boxing. Laila Ali also appeared on Showtime in 2000, the last time the network put on a womens boxing match.Showtime has had a tradition of supporting women in boxing and MMA, Espinoza said. Really, theres no excuse for womens boxing not to be regularly on Showtime, and all the success women have had lately in MMA made the omission all that more glaring.Rivas, 28, of Mexico, has won world titles at junior bantamweight and twice at bantamweight, although she is 1-1-1 in her past three bouts. Serrano has won world titles in four weight classes -- junior featherweight, featherweight, junior lightweight and lightweight.Lou DiBella, Serranos promoter and a strong advocate of womens boxing, credited Espinoza for sticking to his word.I am totally thrilled this fight is going to be televised, DiBella said. Stephen has been a man of his word. He said we would get there and eventually there will be an all-womens show on Showtime, but this is a big step. This is a world title fight of quality. This is a real fight. For womens fight fans this is a premier fight. Its a great step for womens boxing.That the guy running Showtime Sports is a champion of womens boxing is significant. This is a big step and its a hell of a fight. I am very excited that Amanda is getting this opportunity. She deserves it. Yazmin Rivas deserves it. These are women who have had multiple world championships in multiple weight classes. This is a significant fight for womens boxing.Espinoza said the decision to put on Serrano was an easy one because of the networks interest combined with the fact that Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment CEO Brett Yormark, who runs Barclays Center, has made a big commitment to boxing and boxers from the borough.Barclays Center and Brett Yormark have been such supporters of boxing, and with his support of [Brooklyn featherweight] Heather Hardy and Amanda Serrano and other Brooklyn fighters, regardless of gender, the conditions were right, Espinoza said. A network is interested, theres a world champion [Serrano] from Brooklyn and a venue that was interested, so we tried to find the best quality fight we could.Amanda is skilled, fan friendly and an entertaining fighter. She is perfect for our reentry into womens boxing.Espinoza said that although Serrano will appear on the lesser-viewed Showtime Extreme part of the card, there would soon be womens boxing on the networks flagship broadcast Showtime Championship Boxing.Our goal is to make womens boxing a regular thing on Showtime Championship Boxing in the very near future, maybe with Amanda, maybe someone else, he said.Espinoza said he has talked to Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn about lightweight Katie Taylor, the star Irish amateur who won a 2012 Olympic gold medal, appeared in the 2016 Olympics and turned pro with much fanfare last week. Espinoza said he is also paying attention to super middleweight Claressa Shields, the charismatic two-time U.S. Olympic gold medalist who won her professional debut on Nov. 19 on the Sergey Kovalev-Andre Ward undercard.Katie Taylor, we have an eye on her, and Claressa is a really interesting prospect as well, Espinoza said. There are plenty of options. There is talent out there. We just need to find the slots and dates for them.There also will be another bout on the Showtime Extreme coverage of the Jan. 14 card, a scheduled 10-round middleweight fight between prospects Ievgen Khytrov (14-0, 12 KOs), 28, a 2012 Olympian from Ukraine now fighting out of New York, and Immanuwel Aleem (16-0-1, 9 KOs), 23, of Richmond, Virginia.Following the Showtime Extreme bouts, Showtime will pick up coverage beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET with Jose Pedraza defending his junior lightweight world title against Gervonta Davis, followed by the long-awaited Jack-DeGale unification fight in the main event. SWell Marble Bottle Uk . Still, Brewers manager Ron Roenicke thought taking him out before the fifth inning was an unusual move. "Im looking up at the board and hes got two hits given up and one run, and Im taking him out after the fourth inning," Roenicke said. Swell Bottle Uk Sale . Catch all the action on TSN2 at 11pm et/8pm pt. The nine-time Big 12 champion Jayhawks are positioning themselves for another title, as they have run out to a flawless 6-0 mark in conference play thus far. http://www.ukswellbottle.com/ . Takahashi, who had a 10-point lead after the short program, received 268.31 points after the free skate to finish 15 points ahead of second-place Nobunari Oda. Swell Bottle Uk Stockist . The 20-year-old Pelicans big man glanced up and smiled widely at the well-wishers -- a fitting end to a day he wont soon forget. Davis responded to his selection earlier in the day as a Western Conference All-Star with 26 points and 10 rebounds, and the New Orleans Pelicans overcame a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves 98-91 on Friday night. Swell Blue Marble Bottle . Kiriasis and brakeman Franziska Fritz finished two runs in one minute 55.41 seconds -- a mere 0.01 seconds ahead of Meyers and Lolo Jones, who likely bolstered her Olympic hopes by helping give USA-1 a huge push in the second heat. India have brought Bhuvneshwar Kumar back into their squad for the last three Tests against England. They have also left out Gautam Gambhir, leaving M Vijay and KL Rahul as the only two specialist openers in the squad.Gambhir, released from the squad during the second Test in Visakhapatnam, is playing for Delhi in their Ranji Trophy match against Rajasthan in Wayanad, and was out for 10 in the first innings on Tuesday. His opening partner Shikhar Dhawan, who has recovered from a thumb injury and was in the running for a Test comeback, made 38. Dhawan didnt find a place in the squad either.It is understood the selectors wanted Dhawan to play at least two more rounds of the Ranji Trophy before he could be considered for selection. We want him to have some more game time, a BCCI source said. Hes coming back from a finger injury, so let him play at least two matches, and then we can see where he stands in terms of fitness and form.Bhuvneshwar, who took a five-wicket haul in the first innings of the second Test against New Zealand, was ruled out of the third Test with a back strain, and was not picked immediately upon recovering, with the selectors wanting him to prove his match-fitness in first-class cricket before returning to the Test team.ddddddddddddBhuvneshwar subsequently played for Uttar Pradesh in their Ranji Trophy defeat to Mumbai in Mysore, taking two wickets while bowling 36 overs across two innings. With the third Test to be played in Mohali, Bhuvneshwar could be in line for an immediate return if the pitch plays true to its traditional reputation of helping seam bowlers.India squad for last three Tests: Virat Kohli (capt), Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, M Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Karun Nair, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Jayant Yadav, Amit Mishra, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hardik Pandya. ' ' '
