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BOXING TRAILBLAZER AMANDA “THE REAL DEAL” SERRANO CONTINUES TO BREAKTHROUGH AND JOINS CELSIUS® ENERGY DRINK TEAM OF ATHLETES
Serrano’s deal with CELSIUS marks the latest significant achievement in Serrano’s athletic recognition and success since signing with Most Valuable Promotions in 2021
Serrano, Sports Illustrated’s and Boxing Scene’s 2023 Women’s Fighter of the Year, continues to pave path for other female fighters with seven-figure earnings both in partnership deals and in the ring
CELSIUS also officially partners with Most Valuable Promotions to become its exclusive energy drink partner for 2024
NEW YORK, NY – January 10, 2024 – Today, CELSIUS® energy drink and Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) announced that MVP’s unified featherweight champion and Sports Illustrated’s and Boxing Scene’s 2023 Women’s Fighter of the Year, Amanda “The Real Deal” Serrano (46-2-1, 30 KOs), is joining the CELSIUS® team of athletes. CELSIUS was most recently the presenting partner on Serrano’s historic fight night when she broke down barriers and became the first female fighter to defend her unified belts over 12 3-minute rounds, the same rules as men’s championship bouts. Serrano will continue to be integrated into the CELSIUS brand as she continues her boxing career under MVP and as she prepares for her upcoming Professional Fighters League (PFL) appearances. CELSIUS has also officially partnered with MVP to become the exclusive energy drink partner for 2024.
As part of the deal with Amanda Serrano, Serrano will have the CELSIUS logo featured on her fight night attire and be incorporated into CELSIUS branded content that highlights her training regimen as she preps for her upcoming PFL debut and boxing matches, including her first bout of 2024 on Saturday, March 2, where she will face IBF mandatory challenger Nina Meinke (18-3, 4 KOs) in a 12x3 headlining bout at the legendary Coliseo de Puerto Rico San Juan, Puerto Rico featuring Jake Paul as co-main. Serrano will fight for the second time at 12x3, the men’s championship standard, in defense of her unified IBF, WBO, WBA, IBO, and Ring Magazine featherweight world titles. In a true commitment to change for women’s boxing, Serrano recently vacated her WBC title, as the sanctioning body does not support women’s choice for 12x3. Serrano joins Jake Paul and other CELSIUS athletes including Dustin Poirier and Amanda Nunes.
Serrano’s latest move to become a CELSIUS athlete comes on the heels of her dominating 2023 performances in the ring. As one of the most decorated Hispanic athletes of all time, the first-ever Puerto Rican undisputed world champion started her current featherweight title reign by defeating Heather Hardy in a brutal 10-round fight in 2019 to win the WBO belt and has since defended her WBO belt six times. Serrano offered Hardy redemption in August 2023, but successfully defended her undisputed featherweight world champion title for the first time in a decisive 10 round unanimous decision victory. Serrano also won a blood-soaked war against WBA featherweight champion Erika Cruz in February 2023, which made her the undisputed featherweight champion. Serrano’s decisive win against Cruz followed her previous win over Sarah Mahfoud in Manchester, England that added the Dane’s IBF title to her WBO, WBC, and IBO featherweight belts. Her historic clash against Katie Taylor at Madison Square Garden in 2022 earned recognition as Sports Illustrated’s Fight of the Year and The Ring’s Event of the Year and was further nominated for Event of the Year by Sports Business Journal. Most recently, Serrano took home a unanimous decision victory against her mandatory WBO challenger Danila Ramos, making history in the first-ever women’s unified championship to be fought over 12, three-minute rounds, equal to any men’s championship fight, and marking the first time a women’s fight has gone the full 12x3. Serrano threw a career high of 1103 punches in the bout. These historic achievements and in-ring performances further cemented Serrano’s status as a trailblazer and champion for the sport of women’s boxing, garnering her recognition as both Sports Illustrated’s and Boxing Scene’s 2023 Women’s Fighter of the Year.
Serrano joining CELSIUS’ roster of athletes is the newest addition to her growing slate of corporate sponsorships across the US and Puerto Rico, which include Dodge Puerto Rico and popular supermarket chain Econo. To date, she has earned over seven figures both in the ring and in partnership deals, paving the way for other female fighters with her success. Serrano made both seven-figure achievements within two years of joining Most Valuable Promotions under the leadership of Nakisa Bidarian and Jake Paul. Serrano has also signed a contract with the Professional Fighters League PPV Super Fight Division for an exclusive MMA contract. She is expected to begin competing over the next year.
“A few years ago, I never would have believed that I could make seven figures in the ring and be sponsored, let alone by one of the biggest brands in the game,” said Amanda Serrano. “I’ve been working hard for a long time not just for my own wins, but to uplift other women in this sport and become Puerto Rico’s first-ever undisputed boxing champion. CELSIUS gives me the tools I need for success both in my training and in my day-to-day life. It’s an honor to be a CELSIUS athlete. Thank you to MVP, Nakisa and Jake and CELSIUS, I can’t wait to continue this partnership and represent the brand in and out of the ring.”
Most Valuable Promotions and CELSIUS have entered multiple partnerships over the past two years since MVP’s founding, including MVP founder Jake Paul becoming a CELSIUS athlete and CELSIUS serving as presenting sponsor and official energy drink for multiple MVP events including Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz, Jake Paul vs. Andre August, and MVP’s Most Valuable Prospects series, which highlights top up-and-coming talent in boxing. Now CELSIUS and MVP enter into an overall partnership where CELSIUS will officially be the exclusive energy drink partner for all MVP events in 2024.
“There is a natural synergy between MVP, our talent roster, and the CELSIUS brand,” said Nakisa Bidarian and Jake Paul, co-founders of Most Valuable Promotions. “We are committed to bringing out the very best in our athletes and CELSIUS is a perfect partner to fuel that for us and Amanda. We want to thank CELSIUS for seeing the same greatness in Amanda that we do, and for supporting her as she continues to elevate both her game and those around her. With Celsius officially onboard as MVP’s Official Energy Drink, we are going to continue to look for innovative activations to engage our millions of fans with our amazing energy drink partner.”
“We’re excited to have Amanda Serrano join our roster of fiercely competitive CELSIUS athletes,” said Kyle Watson, Executive Vice President of Marketing at Celsius Holdings, Inc. “Our athletes are the best at what they do, and our partnership with MVP allows us to work with athlete’s like Amanda, whose commitment to the LIVE FIT lifestyle illustrates incredible synergy with our brand.”
For more information, follow on Twitter via @Serranosisters, @JakePaul, @MostVPromotions, and @CelsiusOfficial or on Instagram via @serranosisters, @JakePaul, @MostValuablePromotions, and @celsiusofficial.
About Most Valuable Promotions (MVP)
Most Valuable Promotions was founded by Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian in 2021. With the mission to provide more creative control to fighters, MVP works to identify, grow, and maximize return for its own events and talent partners. One year into its inception, MVP was nominated as one of the prestigious Sports Breakthroughs of the Year in 2022 by Sports Business Journal. MVP have produced Jake Paul’s last five global pay-per-view events, including the recent Paul vs. Diaz match. The promotion company also signed one of the most decorated Hispanic athletes of all time, Amanda Serrano in its first year. Serrano and MVP made history in April of 2022 when Serrano went head to head with Katie Taylor, marking the first female fight to headline at Madison Square Garden, recently earning a nomination for Event of The Year by Sports Business Journal. Co-founder Nakisa Bidarian was an executive producer of the historic Triller Presents Mike Tyson v. Roy Jones Jr., which was the 8th most bought pay-per-view event in history.
About Celsius Holdings, Inc.
Celsius Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: CELH), is a global consumer packaged goods company with a proprietary, clinically proven formula for its master brand CELSIUS®. A lifestyle energy drink born in fitness and a pioneer in the rapidly growing energy category. CELSIUS® offers proprietary, functional, essential energy formulas clinically proven to offer significant health benefits to its users. CELSIUS® is backed by six university studies that were published in peer-reviewed journals validating the unique benefits CELSIUS® provides. For more information, please visit https://www.celsius.com
