Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano have thwacked one another with 861 punches across two punishing, brilliant encounters. There\u2019s been not a single knockdown between them, nor an ounce of quit. And not, it seems, a shred of closure either. That will change, or so they hope, on Friday night in New York.<\/p>\n
For the third and likely final time, two of boxing\u2019s most decorated champions and fate-bound dance partners will meet inside the ropes, returning to Madison Square Garden, the site of their epochal 2022 classic<\/a>, for what is being billed as the decisive chapter in a rivalry that helped transform women\u2019s boxing. Taylor\u2019s WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO junior welterweight titles are once again on the line. So is a legacy greater than any belts.<\/p>\n \u201cThis fight is even bigger than the last two,\u201d Taylor said at Wednesday\u2019s final press conference in midtown Manhattan. \u201cTo be headlining such a huge card, an all-female card, is an absolute privilege. I dreamt of this as a kid: headlining a show full of amazing women. It\u2019s a history-making event.\u201d<\/p>\n Quick GuideKatie Taylor v Amanda Serrano IIIShow<\/p>\n Who’s fighting<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2022 Katie Taylor v Amanda Serrano, 10 rounds, for Taylor’s undisputed women’s junior welterweight championship<\/p>\n \u2022 Alycia Baumgardner v Jennifer Miranda, 10 rounds, for Baumgardner’s undisputed women’s junior lightweight championship<\/p>\n \u2022 Savannah Marshall v Shadasia Green, 10 rounds, for Marshall’s IBF women’s super middleweight title and Green’s WBO super middleweight title<\/p>\n \u2022 Chantelle Cameron v Jessica Camara, 10 rounds, for Cameron’s WBC women’s interim junior welterweight title<\/p>\n \u2022 Ellie Scotney v Yamileth Mercado, 10 rounds, for Scotney’s IBF and WBO women’s junior featherweight titles and Mercado’s WBC women’s junior featherweight title<\/p>\n \u2022 Cherneka Johnson v Shurretta Metcalf, 10 rounds, for Johnson’s WBA women’s bantamweight titles, Metcalf’s IBF women’s bantamweight title and the vacant WBC and WBO titles<\/p>\n \u2022 Ramla Ali v Lila Furtado, eight rounds, women’s junior featherweights<\/p>\n \u2022 Tamm Thibeault v Mary Casamassa, eight rounds, middleweights<\/p>\n How to watch<\/strong><\/p>\n The broadcast will stream live globally on Netflix starting at 8pm ET (1am GMT) at no additional cost to subscribers. The broadcast will feature live commentary in English, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Latin America), Brazilian Portuguese and French.<\/p>\n Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n Taylor\u2019s promoter-speak lands beyond the obligatory hyperbole. The bout is the main event of an eight-fight all-women\u2019s card that will be freely available to Netflix\u2019s roughly 300m subscribers around the world. And fittingly, the two fighters who broke the sport\u2019s glass ceiling<\/a> at the Garden two years ago, when organizers planned for a crowd of about 10,000 but were forced to open the entire arena due to unanticipated demand, are back to close the circle.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019ll be a fourth fight,\u201d Serrano said Wednesday. \u201cI\u2019m kind of tired of Katie Taylor. We\u2019ve had great moments together, great fights together. \u2026 But two is better than one, right? She\u2019ll have two, I\u2019ll have one, and she can live with that.\u201d<\/p>\n The 36-year-old Puerto Rican star isn\u2019t being glib. She enters this fight 0-2 against Taylor, even if both decisions were disputed. Their first meeting at 135lb, the first time two women\u2019s boxers headlined the Garden, ended in a split decision many saw as too close to call. The rematch last November<\/a> at AT&T Stadium in Texas was marginally more decisive, Taylor\u2019s cleaner shots outweighing Serrano\u2019s relentless volume. But neither decision was without controversy.<\/p>\n Serrano, who suffered a deep cut above her eye in that second fight, believes she was fouled. Her trainer, Jordan Maldonado, accused Taylor of \u201cleading with her head\u201d, while Serrano herself doubled down post-fight. \u201cShe does it in every fight,\u201d she said. \u201cWe knew that from the very beginning, from the first fight. That\u2019s what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n Taylor, for her part, has heard enough. \u201cI\u2019m just tired of the complaining and the whining from Amanda\u2019s team,\u201d she said. \u201cI have my own opinion about the stuff Amanda has been saying, but the fact is I\u2019m 2-0 against her. Opinions are opinions, but facts are facts. I plan to stay 3-0 come this Friday night.\u201d<\/p>\n Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano are headlining the first all-women\u2019s professional boxing card to be held at Madison Square Garden. Photograph: Esther Lin\/Most Valuable Promotions<\/p>\n That smoldering tension has added a new edge to a rivalry once defined by mutual respect. But beneath the friction remains the core of what makes this so compelling: two elite operators with world-class engines and complementary styles that guarantee action from the first bell to the last. Serrano out-landed Taylor in both fights \u2013 324 to 217 in the rematch by Compubox\u2019s count<\/a> \u2013 but Taylor absorbed the storm and returned fire with greater precision.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like people haven\u2019t seen the best me yet,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cI can definitely make the fight a lot easier for myself and I just can\u2019t wait to step in there and actually perform.\u201d<\/p>\n Serrano, meanwhile, says she has adjusted her approach. \u201cI\u2019m going to use my head, but not the way it was used on me,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be smarter. I worked a lot smarter for this fight and I believe we will come out victorious.\u201d<\/p>\n At 39, Taylor (24-1, 6 KOs) has little left to prove. The 2012 Olympic champion<\/a> is one of the few fighters in history, male or female, to have become an undisputed champion in two different weight classes. Since turning pro in 2016, she has fought and beaten nearly every top name of her era. But it is the flinty Nuyorican who stands as her defining foil.<\/p>\n Serrano (47-3-1, 31 KOs), who joined the paying ranks three years before women\u2019s boxing was added to the Olympics and failed to benefit from the mainstream visibility it afforded, has worn belts in seven different weight classes from 115lb to 140lb, including an undisputed reign at featherweight. The Puerto Rico-born, Brooklyn-based southpaw is also fighting in her adopted hometown. \u201cTo win here, at the Garden, it would be amazing,\u201d she said. \u201cTo bring those belts back over the bridge would be really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, she insists she never lost her confidence after Texas. \u201cLosing is never fun, but you only lose if you feel like you lost,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I didn\u2019t feel like I lost. My team told me I didn\u2019t lose. They\u2019re proud of me, so I\u2019m OK. Like [Serrano\u2019s promoter] Jake Paul says: \u2018You turn that L into a W.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Unknown to all but hardcore boxing fans for most of her career due to a lack of investment in female fighters by TV networks and promoters, Serrano was once paid $1,500 for a world title defense. Now she will reap another seven-figure purse while headlining the most loaded women\u2019s boxing card ever assembled, with multiple undisputed and unified titles on the line. Alycia Baumgardner defends all four of her belts at super featherweight. Savannah Marshall, Ellie Scotney and Chantelle Cameron \u2013 the only fighter to beat Taylor as a professional \u2013 will all fight for world championships. The crowd-pleasing London-based Somali junior featherweight Ramla Ali<\/a> is also booked for an eight-round non-title bout coming off her second career setback.<\/p>\n Both Taylor and Serrano have said they\u2019re open to a fourth meeting, if necessary. But if Friday night goes to the scorecards again, and one woman emerges with a clean, uncontroversial victory, the book may finally close on the debate. \u201cI just love the challenge,\u201d Taylor said when asked why she accepted the trilogy despite winning the first two. \u201cThis was still the biggest fight in women\u2019s boxing. Why not take it again?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano have thwacked one another with 861 punches across two punishing, brilliant encounters. There\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-255790","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114833829837320077","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}