BoxingScene Female Fight of the Year: Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano II

Sometimes, this job is too easy. Selecting the Female Fight of the Year for 2024 is one of those times, so you shouldn’t be surprised that this award goes to November’s rematch between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano.

What should be surprising is that this 10-rounder was as good as it was. Remember, when Taylor and Serrano met the first time in 2022, it was not just considered the best female fight of that year, but of any year. And with both combatants being on the wrong side of 35 when they rematched at AT&T Stadium, expectations were muted for the return bout. 

That’s usually the case for sequels, and despite a record crowd and viewing audience on Netflix, most eyes were seemingly drawn to the headliners, Jake Paul and Mike Tyson.

Taylor and Serrano weren’t concerned with such matters, and after another 10 rounds of watching the future hall of famers crash into each other repeatedly, it may be safe to say that whether facing each other in a football stadium or in a dark alley at 3am in the morning, these two will always produce a thrilling fight.

Call it a perfect clash of styles, their competitive nature, or anything else, Taylor and Serrano are meant for each other. It’s the Ali-Frazier of female boxing, and if we’re lucky we’ll get a third fight sometime in 2025.

But, for now, let’s celebrate a rematch that not only matched the action and intensity of their first bout, but may have surpassed it.

It was that good, but odds were against Taylor repeating her first win after getting rocked late in the opening round. If Serrano had her way when it came to the bout being contested with three-minute rounds, the fight might have ended in the first, but at two-minute rounds, Taylor got to fight another day.

That made us the lucky ones.

Taylor battled her way back in the fight, and while Serrano’s power shots were doing their job, when a clash of heads produced cuts on both fighters, the Puerto Rican got the worst of it, and suddenly there was a threat of the bout ending prematurely.

Now there was a new sense of urgency from both fighters. Taylor wanted to close the show, and Serrano refused to quit, instead wading into the fray with even more intensity. The crowd roared, a new audience that may have never seen women’s boxing before were suddenly all-in on the sport, and the fighters kept punching.

Down the stretch, the pair’s exchanges were breathtaking, and while the cliché is “leaving it all in the ring,” that’s what Taylor and Serrano did. When the final bell sounded and the unanimous verdict was rendered for the pride of Ireland, there was controversy, with many believing Serrano deserved the verdict, but if you watch the fight again, there were so many close rounds that whether it was a win for either fighter or a draw, there shouldn’t have been any complaints. It was that close and that good, and Taylor and Serrano did themselves and the sport proud.

2024 Female Fight of the Year? There’s no controversy about this decision.

Mikaela Mayer WMD10 Sandy Ryan

Seniesa Estrada WUD10 Yokasta Valle

Ginny Fuchs WSD10 Adelaida Ruiz