In the first boxing bout between two women at New York’s Madison Square Garden, Ireland’s Katie Taylor beat Puerto Rico’s Amanda Serrano on Saturday night.
Taylor, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist, maintains her perfect record and raises her career tally to 21-0 with six KOs.
In front of a sold-out Madison Square Garden, the 35-year-old successfully defended her WBA, IBF, WBO, and WBC women’s lightweight belts.
Despite their exhaustion, the two competitors fought to the finish in dramatic manner as they frantically sought to hit their last blows.
A wounded and shaky Taylor was proclaimed the victor in the fifth round after sustaining strong blows from Serrano.
Reuters quotes Taylor as saying, “I knew going in that I was going to be in the trenches at some point.”
As she put it, “She’s an incredible warrior and a wonderful human being. I knew I could do this.”
As of this writing, Serrano’s record is 42-2-1 with 30 knockouts. She’s won global championships from 115 to 140-pound weight divisions. Serrano, 33, retained her WBO and WBC featherweight crowns last year.
In an interview with CNN before to the fight, Taylor said she couldn’t wait to get in there.
It will be a “fantastic battle” since “we are two tremendous champions in our prime,” Taylor remarked. “I believe we could do very well stylistically. Both she and I are clearly highly aggressive fighters. As a result, I am certain that this battle will be thrilling.”
For the first time ever, the “World’s Most Famous Arena” featured a match between two women as the main act. It was also the first time since Manny Pacquiao beat Juan Manuel Marquez in 2008 when the pound-for-pound top two in boxing met.
According to Taylor, her personal accomplishment isn’t enough; she also wants other female boxers to be recognised for their achievements.
In terms of paychecks and handbags, she said, “I feel like we have covered a lot of distance over the previous few years, but I still feel like we still have a long way to go.”
In my opinion, the huge money shouldn’t only go to Amanda Nunes and myself; it should be shared with the other female fighters as well, which I hope can happen.
As a result of the Covid-19 epidemic, the match planned for Saturday, May 2, 2020, has been postponed.