Chemicals from a hair treatment got in Serrano’s eye, temporarily blinding her and forcing doctors to call off her homecoming fight in Puerto Rico.
We’ve all heard horror stories about hair cuts or dye jobs gone wrong, but we’ve never heard of one that ended up costing someone $1.5 million dollars.
The someone in this case is YouTuber turned boxer Jake Paul via his MVP Promotions company. The hair treatment in question was one MVP’s star women’s boxing champion Amanda Serrano got leading into her main event fight in Puerto Rico on Saturday night. Chemicals from the procedure leaked from her hair into her eyes, burning her cornea so badly doctors refused to let her fight Nina Meinke.
“According to [MVP COO] Nakisa Bidarian, Serrano had her hair done Thursday night,” Ariel Helwani reported on the situation. “She went for a run on Friday, a chemical from the hair went into her eye. It starting bothering her Friday and that’s why she wore glasses at the ceremonial [weigh-ins].”
An emotional Amanda Serrano expresses her heartfelt disappointment that she was not cleared to fight tonight. pic.twitter.com/hcTAYuZPgX
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) March 3, 2024
“Bothered her all day today and when they examined her tonight at the arena the commission doctor wouldn’t clear her,” he continued. “She tried to convince them otherwise but alas no luck. Jake Paul adds that the chemical burnt her cornea and hand.”
It’s unclear how many people were in attendance at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico, but the arena holds up to 18,500 people and Bidarian reports the gate was $1.5 million — emphasis on ‘was,’ because MVP Promotions is completely refunding everyone’s ticket.
That’s pretty stand-up behavior considering the rest of the card went off without a hitch, including a co-main featuring Jake Paul clobbering Ryan Bourland (watch the finish here), plus a WBO junior flyweight championship bout. As of now there’s no word on when Serrano vs. Meinke will be rescheduled, if at all. With big-money opponents in the wing, this bout was considered something of a time-filler for Serrano.
An expensive one, as it turns out.