Reina Tellez: From Late Notice to Big Stage in Boxing

Reina Tellez doesn’t tiptoe toward opportunity. She sprints at it.

In January, the 23-year-old from Vero Beach, Florida, accepted a fight with seven-division champion Amanda Serrano on just 15 days’ notice. No tune-up, no gentle introduction to the elite level. Straight in with one of the most destructive forces women’s boxing has ever seen.

She went the distance.

Serrano won on points, as expected, but walked away calling Tellez a “warrior”. The label stuck. So did the impression she made on a sport that had barely heard her name a month earlier.

Now Tellez is back under the lights, this time with notice, this time with momentum. She faces Jessica Barry on Saturday night on the undercard of Mikaela Mayer vs Chantelle Cameron at MVPW-06 in Birmingham, a landmark fifth-anniversary show for MVP and a significant stage for a fighter who has forced her way into the conversation.

From late notice to big stage

“I believe in myself and I have a lot of heart. This is something I've always wanted to do, ever since I was a child,” Tellez told Sky Sports.

That Serrano call-up changed everything. Fifteen days to prepare. Fifteen days to process that she would share a ring with the woman she’d grown up watching on TV. She took it anyway.

“Having somebody that I watched growing up (Serrano) and then having the opportunity to fight her, it meant so much to me. And to make my family proud and to prove something to myself. So I took it considering the short time.”

She didn’t get the win. She did get something else.

“I had a great outcome, even though it wasn't a win. I got a lot of things from that fight. Like I said, I'm grateful.”

That gratitude is rooted in what came next. Tellez, now 13-1-1 (5 KOs) as a professional, suddenly had a profile. The Serrano performance put her on a different track, even if the next step didn’t go to plan. She had been scheduled to face Juliana Vanesa Basualdo on the Stephanie Han vs Holly Holm 2 card in May, only for the fight to fall through.

The momentum could have stalled. Instead, it’s carried her onto one of MVP’s biggest nights.

“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.”

Not the same fighter who faced Serrano

Tellez speaks like someone who has already watched the tape back a hundred times and rebuilt herself from it.

“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. This fight means so much to me, my family and my team. So I'm grateful for it.”

The benchmark she measures herself against is still active and still winning. Serrano recently secured the 50th victory of her professional career with a majority decision over Lucrecia Manzur, retaining her WBA and WBO featherweight titles. The fight, broadcast live on TikTok, drew 3.4 million views across the night, another reminder of Serrano’s pull and the scale of the stage Tellez has already tasted.

“You look at everything she (Serrano) has done, she's done a lot for the sport,” said Tellez. “She's a world champion for a reason. So you have to always give respect to her too.”

That respect doesn’t sound like awe anymore. It sounds like a reference point.

From Vero Beach to Texas fight country

Tellez’s path into boxing began in a small Florida town, watching fights on television and tagging along as her uncle trained at the local gym. Curiosity turned into conviction.

“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.

“And then they took their chance on it, they took me to the gym and since then I've just been boxing.”

That decision eventually pulled her west. These days she trains out of San Antonio, Texas, a state that lives and breathes the sport. She is one of two fighters, along with Miranda Reyes, flying the Texas flag on this weekend’s card.

“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.”

Talk of a “Texas takeover” doesn’t faze her.

“For sure.”

The bold tend to speak like that. On Saturday in Birmingham, with the Serrano lesson in her back pocket and a bigger audience watching, we find out how far that boldness can take her.