Gaines V Serrano

Gaines lost a tough decision on Friday night, April 8th, to Cindy Serrano (now
8-0) from Brooklyn, NY. The hard hitting Serrano came out strong in round 1 with one power punch after another. Gaines opened up round 2 nicely and was probably out-punching her opponent until she was dropped with a perfectly placed body shot. Gaines answered the 8-count only to be dropped again by the same devastating body shot. Serrano's fans (who made the 1 hour drive from NY to NJ to support her) went wild, thinking the fight was over, but Gaines once again answered the 8-count and survived the round (barely)!

Much to the surprise and enthusiasm of the crowd Gaines recovered in round
3 and launched a big comeback in rounds 4 and 5 when Serrano's stamina faltered. Gaines out-boxed Serrano for those rounds, and showed she was in better condition. However, she couldn't put Serrano down and due to the 7-10 score of round 2 was unable to come back from such a large deficit. Here's what Sharon had to say:

"After the fight so many people came up to me and told me how much heart I had, how they thought I was down for the count in round 2 and couldn't believe I came back to win some rounds. Although I appreciate their comments, my only thinking was 'I wish I hadn't had to show so much heart!'
When someone has to have a lot of heart to finish a fight you know something went wrong early on."
"Serrano does have a lot of power and she threw a lot of punches in the first two rounds. However, she was not conditioned to take that power through to the end of the fight. Although I lost fair and square and am not proud of hitting the canvas, I am proud that I had the strength and stamina to come back fight a couple of the best rounds of my career."