NEW YORK – Amanda Serrano was presented with a golden opportunity not only to forever raise the bar for women in boxing but also achieve immortality in Puerto Rico.  

The record-setting, seven-division champion would have been forgiven for taking issue with the split decision verdict landing in favor of undisputed lightweight queen Katie Taylor in their epic championship clash in front of a sellout crowd of 19,187 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Instead, Serrano stayed true to herself, remaining humble and still taking in the historic moment she and Taylor created together on April 30.

“I really don’t know,” Serrano told BoxingScene.com and other reporters when asked of her thoughts on whether she felt she deserved the decision. “I’m in there, of course every fighter is going to think they won the fight. I have to sit and look, watch the fight again. Maybe not, because I really don’t like to watch my fights.

“But, I don’t know… it was a great fight. That’s all I wanted to do was put on a great fight, show that women can sell and I’m glad that I put on the performance I did. I gave it all I had (on Saturday). It is what it is.”

Judge Guido Cavalleri (96-94) was the lone official to score in favor of Serrano. His card was overruled by judges Glenn Feldman (97-93) and Benoit Roussel (96-93) in favor of Taylor (21-0, 6KOs). All three judges scored the final three rounds in favor of the defending lightweight champion from Bray, Ireland.

Already the only female and the only Puerto Rican to win titles in more than four divisions, a win by Serrano would have made her the first-ever Puerto Rican boxer—male or female—to achieve undisputed championship status. Plenty of viewers share the belief that the Brooklyn-bred Boricua southpaw did enough and was wrongly deprived of creating that kind of history on a night that meant so much to the culture for Serrano, Ireland’s Taylor and for women of all ages around the world who never previously imagined such an event could take place.

The most consistent and reasonable criticism with the final scores was the notion that Serrano (42-2-1, 30KOs) deserved far better than to only win three rounds on the cards of Feldman and Roussel. Serrano even managed a 10-8 round on Roussel’s card for round five when she had Taylor badly hurt in landing 44-of-114 punches—both fight bests and the most punches any opponent has ever landed on Taylor in a single round.

The great debate continues well in the aftermath of what has emerged as the leading Fight of the Year candidate, regardless of gender. Serrano has done her best to keep up on social media afterward in showing her appreciation for those who had her deserving to win the fight. If there is a part of her that feels the same, it was never going to come out at the expense of overshadowing all that the event was meant to represent.

“I’m always gonna perform like a champion,” insisted Serrano, whose 28-fight win streak was snapped 10 years almost to the day of her lone other defeat. “Win, lose or draw, I’m always gonna represent myself as a woman, as a champion, as a professional. That’s what I do.”

Saturday's bout took place two divisions above Serrano's optimal weight of featherweight, where she remains the unified WBC/WBO champion.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox