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A few minutes after Amanda Serrano crushed Calixta Silgado in a first-round knockout victory to retain her womens featherweight world title on July 30 on the Carl Frampton-Leo Santa Cruz undercard, Serrano ran into Showtime Sports general manager Stephen Espinoza in the tunnel at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.Espinoza, who has become more and more a fan of womens boxing, congratulated Serrano, who would have loved for the fight to be televised on Showtime.Espinoza told her that he was interested in airing not only her fight but other womens bouts in the future, and he all but promised her that in 2017 he would find a way to get her on the air.On Friday, Espinoza delivered on his promise when Showtime announced that it would air Serranos bout on Jan. 14, also at Barclays Center, on Showtime Extreme (7 p.m. ET/PT), where it will televise preliminary fights on the Showtime card headlined by the Badou Jack-James DeGale super middleweight world title unification fight.Puerto Rico native Serrano (30-1-1, 23 KOs), who lives in Brooklyn, vacated her featherweight belt and moved down in weight and knocked out Alexandra Lazar in the first round on Oct. 18 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to win a vacant womens junior featherweight world title. Serrano, 28, will defend that 122-pound crown against former two-division world titleholder Yazmin Rivas (35-9-1, 10 KOs) in the first womens world title bout scheduled to air on English-language national television in nearly a decade.Its been one of our goals to get womens boxing back on Showtime, Espinoza told ESPN. Im a little embarrassed we didnt do it sooner. But over the last two to three years its been proven that once again the market is absolutely ready for womens combat sports. Just look at MMA, and its not just Ronda Rousey, but other womens fighters, who have built followings.Espinoza pointed out that female MMA stars such as Rousey, Miesha Tate, Cris Cyborg Justino and Gina Carano all got early exposure on Showtime-televised cards. Showtime also is where Christy Martin fought several times in the late 1990s as a trailblazer in womens boxing. Laila Ali also appeared on Showtime in 2000, the last time the network put on a womens boxing match.Showtime has had a tradition of supporting women in boxing and MMA, Espinoza said. Really, theres no excuse for womens boxing not to be regularly on Showtime, and all the success women have had lately in MMA made the omission all that more glaring.Rivas, 28, of Mexico, has won world titles at junior bantamweight and twice at bantamweight, although she is 1-1-1 in her past three bouts. Serrano has won world titles in four weight classes -- junior featherweight, featherweight, junior lightweight and lightweight.Lou DiBella, Serranos promoter and a strong advocate of womens boxing, credited Espinoza for sticking to his word.I am totally thrilled this fight is going to be televised, DiBella said. Stephen has been a man of his word. He said we would get there and eventually there will be an all-womens show on Showtime, but this is a big step. This is a world title fight of quality. This is a real fight. For womens fight fans this is a premier fight. Its a great step for womens boxing.That the guy running Showtime Sports is a champion of womens boxing is significant. This is a big step and its a hell of a fight. I am very excited that Amanda is getting this opportunity. She deserves it. Yazmin Rivas deserves it. These are women who have had multiple world championships in multiple weight classes. This is a significant fight for womens boxing.Espinoza said the decision to put on Serrano was an easy one because of the networks interest combined with the fact that Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment CEO Brett Yormark, who runs Barclays Center, has made a big commitment to boxing and boxers from the borough.Barclays Center and Brett Yormark have been such supporters of boxing, and with his support of [Brooklyn featherweight] Heather Hardy and Amanda Serrano and other Brooklyn fighters, regardless of gender, the conditions were right, Espinoza said. A network is interested, theres a world champion [Serrano] from Brooklyn and a venue that was interested, so we tried to find the best quality fight we could.Amanda is skilled, fan friendly and an entertaining fighter. She is perfect for our reentry into womens boxing.Espinoza said that although Serrano will appear on the lesser-viewed Showtime Extreme part of the card, there would soon be womens boxing on the networks flagship broadcast Showtime Championship Boxing.Our goal is to make womens boxing a regular thing on Showtime Championship Boxing in the very near future, maybe with Amanda, maybe someone else, he said.Espinoza said he has talked to Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn about lightweight Katie Taylor, the star Irish amateur who won a 2012 Olympic gold medal, appeared in the 2016 Olympics and turned pro with much fanfare last week. Espinoza said he is also paying attention to super middleweight Claressa Shields, the charismatic two-time U.S. Olympic gold medalist who won her professional debut on Nov. 19 on the Sergey Kovalev-Andre Ward undercard.Katie Taylor, we have an eye on her, and Claressa is a really interesting prospect as well, Espinoza said. There are plenty of options. There is talent out there. We just need to find the slots and dates for them.There also will be another bout on the Showtime Extreme coverage of the Jan. 14 card, a scheduled 10-round middleweight fight between prospects Ievgen Khytrov (14-0, 12 KOs), 28, a 2012 Olympian from Ukraine now fighting out of New York, and Immanuwel Aleem (16-0-1, 9 KOs), 23, of Richmond, Virginia.Following the Showtime Extreme bouts, Showtime will pick up coverage beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET with Jose Pedraza defending his junior lightweight world title against Gervonta Davis, followed by the long-awaited Jack-DeGale unification fight in the main event.Stitched Soccer Jerseys . The quest begins with what is supposed to be an easy one, although Germany has traditionally been a stubborn opponent to Canadian teams at international tournaments. Custom Soccer Jerseys . PETERSBURG, Fla. https://www.fakesoccerjerseys.com/ . 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And spoken is defined as one calling the other to inquire, no more, no less.NEW YORK -- American swimmer Ryan Lochte said he over-exaggerated what happened at a Rio de Janeiro gas station and acknowledged it was his immature behavior that got him and three teammates into a mess that consumed the final days of the Olympics.Lochte, in a portion of an interview with NBCs Matt Lauer that aired Saturday , continued backtracking from a story that he initially described as an armed robbery. Police have said the swimmers vandalized a bathroom after a night of partying and armed guards confronted them and asked them to pay for the damage.Its how you want to make it look like, Lochte said. Whether you call it a robbery or whether you call it extortion or us just paying for the damages, we dont know. All we know is that there was a gun pointed in our direction and we were demanded to give money.But he admitted that he understood that he was being told that the Americans had to pay for the damage or the police would be called.At that point, Lauer said: Youre striking a deal. Is that fair?We just wanted to get out of there, Lochte said, adding the swimmers were frightened.Lauer told Lochte that his story had morphed from one about the mean streets or Rio to a negotiated settlement to cover up dumb behavior.Thats why Im taking full responsibility for it, because I over-exaggerated the story, Lochte said. If I had never done that, we wouldnt be in this mess.Lochte also said he had liied in telling NBC interviewer Billy Bush the next day that a gun had been cocked and pointed at his forehead.dddddddddddd He said he was still under the influence of alcohol when he talked to Bush.I definitely had too much to drink that night and I was very intoxicated, he said.Lochte, who dyed his hair white for the games and had it turn a light shade of green from the pool, had changed his hair back to its regular shade of brown for the interview, which was conducted in New York. As Brazilian police investigated his robbery claim, and eventually held his teammates for questioning while they sorted out his story, he had tweeted he intended to dye it back.He said he hoped to continue competitive swimming but acknowledged that it wont be his decision about whether hed be able to be part of the American team again. USA Swimming and the International Olympic Committee could issue sanctions.Lochte said he regretted how the incident had tarnished Rio and the last week of the Olympics. He also gave an interview to Brazils main broadcaster Globo on Saturday to apologize for his actions.Brazil doesnt deserve that, he said to Globo. I am sorry that my immaturity caused all this ruckus.---Associated Press Writer Adriana Gomez Licon in Rio de Janeiro contributed to this report. ' ' '