Amanda Serrano has gone seemingly everywhere, and tried seemingly everything. That doesn’t mean there isn’t new ground to tread, even if that new ground is in a familiar territory.

Puerto Rico is where Serrano was born and briefly lived before her family moved to New York City. It is where she has reconnected with the island as an adult – both in and out of the ring – where she has fought several times before while trying to make a name for herself, and where she has opened up a boxing gym bearing that very name.

It is also where Serrano will fight on March 2, as the marquee attraction at the Coliseo Jose Miguel Agrelot – the largest indoor arena in Puerto Rico for sports and entertainment, and the same spot where WWE hosted a premium live event last year featuring musical superstar Bad Bunny in a wrestling match. It is also where, judging by how few remaining tickets are listed online, Serrano will soon perform in front of a packed crowd.

Familiar territory. New ground.

For all of Serrano’s accomplishments and all of her adventures — fighting in different countries; moving up and down through boxing’s weight classes; winning world titles in seven divisions; capturing accolades; tearing down one of boxing’s long-standing barriers; taking on one of boxing’s outstanding talents, and even taking herself into other combat sports — she had never headlined in front of a large audience in Puerto Rico.

Sure, there were main events on the island in the past. Her fights with Edina Kiss there in 2016 and 2017 were at comparably smaller venues, as was a victory in 2021 over Daniela Romina Bermudez, held before the precautions of the Covid-19 pandemic-era had fully lifted.

“Pinch me,” Serrano said earlier this year, speaking at a press conference for the event, which airs live on DAZN on Saturday. She will defend her three featherweight world titles and lineal championship against Nina Meinke. Serrano’s promoter, the social-media-star-turned-boxer Jake Paul, will be in the co-feature.

You can understand why Serrano feels awestruck despite her extensive experience. Or perhaps it’s because of her extensive experience.

This is her 50th pro fight. This month marks 15 years since she first laced up her gloves in the paid ranks. She is 35 years old, 46-2-1 with 30 knockouts – a surefire future inductee into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, and a fighter who had already achieved so much before the path her career took during the past few years. It is these past few years, though, that have been the pinnacle, coinciding with — and boosted by — women’s boxing at long last beginning to get more publicity.

“You know we struggle so much, I’ve struggled so much in this sport, not getting recognized, not getting paid, not being put in the spotlight,” Serrano told Paul, who interviewed her for a video DAZN posted online. “Things have changed thanks to you, thanks to other promoters, putting us on; giving us the opportunities; giving us the pay.”

Serrano won her first world title way back in 2011, when she was just shy of her 23rd birthday and in just her 13th pro fight. That was also a hometown headliner – the main event of a small show in Brooklyn. She proceeded to add weight or drop pounds, depending on where the opportunities were, and to accumulate frequent flier miles for the same reason. While splitting that stage of her career between the United States and the Dominican Republic, Serrano added passport stamps from Sweden and Argentina. 

By early 2016 she had gone down to featherweight to win a vacant title, making her a three-division belt holder, alongside her title wins at 130 and 135. Two months later came Serrano’s Puerto Rican debut. By the end of the year she added a world title in her fourth weight class, moving down to 122 for another vacant belt. She did the same at bantamweight – her fifth, in 2017. By the tail end of 2018, Serrano was all the way up at junior welterweight, winning a world title in her sixth division. Four months later she had dropped all the way down to 115 for her seventh.

Granted, six of these seven title wins were for vacant belts, and some came against a lower level of opposition, but this was an understandable tactic for a female American boxer – even one of Serrano’s caliber – to try to get people to pay attention, and generally to try to get paid. 

Promoters were willing to highlight her or otherwise feature her on their shows, even if the paydays paled in comparison to her male counterparts. It’s no wonder that Serrano kept more active than the top male fighters tend to be these days. She made four appearances each in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017. There also were two mixed martial arts bouts in 2018 (and her one boxing match that year) and one in 2021, plus a couple of jiu-jitsu competitions.

Serrano had risen in stature, moved toward the top of the women’s pound-for-pound rankings and was known by hardcore fans – and increasingly by others – as one of the best fighters in the world. That put her in position for her biggest opportunity yet — a huge fight in 2020 with Katie Taylor, the undisputed lightweight champion and Irish superstar — only for that to be called off amid the height of the pandemic.

That letdown wouldn’t last.

With three victories in 2021, Serrano was named the Boxing Writers Association of America female fighter of the year. She appeared on one of Paul’s pay-per-view undercards and soon signed with Paul’s promotional company. By 2022 the fight with Taylor had been rescheduled. They soon went to war in the big room at Madison Square Garden, picking up the women’s Fight of the Year award from the BWAA and earning seven-figure paydays in the process.

Serrano came up just short of seizing the championship from Taylor that night, but she became undisputed herself back down at 126 later in 2022. While an injury to Serrano meant that her planned rematch with Taylor never went forward in 2023, the three victories she otherwise picked up last year notched her another award for Fighter of the Year. 

That last win, a shutout decision over Danila Ramos, was a 12-round fight with three-minute rounds – the same length of men’s title fights, rather than the 10 two-minute rounds that regulators and sanctioning bodies typically require for women. It was something that Serrano and other prominent women fighters had called for over the years, but something that the World Boxing Council had vocally opposed, leading her to drop the WBC belt.

Combat sports are no longer just about finding ways to make a living. Serrano keeps finding ways these days to make history.

The Meinke fight itself, which will also be 12x3, won’t add anything significantly new or notable to Serrano’s greater legacy. Meinke, a 30 year old from Germany, is 18-3 with four knockouts. Two of those defeats came against Katie Taylor (TKO7 in 2017, back in Taylor’s early pro days) and Sarah Mahfoud (UD12 in 2022), whom Serrano beat in Mahfoud’s next outing.

What more history is there to make? 

Serrano could once again seek a rematch with Taylor, the undisputed champion both at lightweight and super lightweight. 

She could aim for Alycia Baumgardner, a fellow American who is the undisputed champion at 130 but who has been suspended following positive tests for banned substances. 

Or she could strive to remain the dominant veteran champion – the queen of the hill fending off young upstarts such as Raven Chapman of the United Kingdom and Skye Nicolson of Australia, both of whom have spoken of wanting to challenge Serrano.

Those conversations can come later. For now, for this weekend at least, the Meinke fight is a deserving homecoming for Serrano. It is both a victory lap after the career she’s had so far — and a pit stop amid the journey still to come.

Follow David Greisman on Twitter @FightingWords2. His book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.