Reina Tellez: From Short Notice to Big Stage in Boxing
Reina Tellez knows what it means to jump without a safety net.
In January, the 23-year-old accepted a fight with seven-division world champion Amanda Serrano on just 15 days’ notice. No tune-up, no gentle introduction, just a straight walk into the fire against one of the greatest to ever lace them up.
She went the distance. She lost on points. And her career changed.
Now the American returns to the spotlight on Saturday night, facing Jessica Barry on the undercard of Mikaela Mayer vs Chantelle Cameron at MVPW-06 in Birmingham, stepping back onto a stage she helped earn the hard way.
From short notice to big platform
Tellez’s record reads 13-1-1 (5 KOs), but the numbers don’t quite capture the leap she took earlier this year. Serrano, a relentless southpaw and a seven-division champion, is the kind of name most young fighters circle on posters, not on contracts.
Tellez signed anyway.
“Having somebody that I watched growing up (Serrano) and then having the opportunity to fight her, it meant so much to me,” she told Sky Sports. “And to make my family proud and to prove something to myself. So I took it considering the short time.”
Serrano called her a “warrior” afterwards. The label stuck because it fit. Tellez didn’t get the upset, but she got something else: credibility, attention, and a new ceiling.
“I had a great outcome, even though it wasn’t a win,” she said. “I got a lot of things from that fight. Like I said, I'm grateful.”
That gratitude now carries her into a landmark night as MVP celebrate their fifth anniversary, with Tellez one of the faces of the next wave.
Lessons from a legend
Serrano has just notched the 50th win of her professional career, edging Lucrecia Manzur by majority decision to retain her WBA and WBO featherweight titles. The bout, streamed live on TikTok, drew a total of 3.4 million views across the night, another reminder of Serrano’s pull and profile.
“You look at everything she has done, she's done a lot for the sport,” Tellez said. “She's a world champion for a reason. So you have to always give respect to her too.”
That respect is genuine, but it doesn’t come with deference. Tellez talks like a fighter who has crossed an invisible line. She knows what elite looks and feels like now, and she insists she is no longer the same boxer who walked into that ring in January.
“I'm not the same fighter that I was when I fought Amanda Serrano, and even my fights before that, I feel like I've really evolved,” she said. “So to see how much better I've got over the past couple of months and the changes that I've made that I can showcase in the ring, it means a lot to me.”
Saturday, then, is not a nostalgia trip. It’s an exam. Everything she learned in 10 hard rounds with Serrano is supposed to show up against Barry.
“This fight means so much to me, my family and my team,” she added. “So I'm grateful for it.”
A career built on a childhood dream
The journey started in Vero Beach, Florida, in living rooms and local gyms. Tellez watched fights on television, watched her uncle train, and decided she wanted in.
There was resistance.
“I told them I wanted to box, and at first they didn't want to because I'm the only girl in the family,” she said.
The family relented. They took her to the gym. She never really left.
Those early days eventually led to a move to Texas, a state with a deep boxing culture and an unforgiving gym scene. Tellez now trains out of San Antonio, sharing the stage this weekend with fellow Texan Miranda Reyes as they represent a state that has produced its share of champions and cult heroes.
“Texas is big, boxing is huge in Texas, that's one of the main reasons I actually moved to Texas,” she said. “It's just crazy to see people that I've known since even as a kid be here. And I'm happy for everybody who comes from where I come from to be able to get the opportunity. So best of luck to Miranda and to me.”
Is a Texas takeover coming?
“For sure,” she replied.
Riding the Serrano surge
Tellez was originally slated to fight Juliana Vanesa Basualdo on the Stephanie Han vs Holly Holm 2 card in May, only for the bout to fall through. Lesser careers can stall on nights like that. Hers did not.
She traces that resilience back to the Serrano fight, the moment that dragged her from the margins into the conversation.
“The Serrano fight got me on a platform like I am today. For that, I'm extremely grateful,” she said. “I feel like without that fight, I wouldn't be able to see the things that I need in my life and in my career to keep being successful and keep being Reina. It taught me a lot as a boxer and as a person.”
That’s the thread running through her story now: risk as a career choice, not a one-off gamble. Take the short-notice fight. Move states. Step up again on a major card.
Fortune can favour the bold. On Saturday in Birmingham, we find out just how far that boldness can take her.
