Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano II raises a ceiling more deserve to break through

There’s an opportunity here, not in the well-worn (and dangerous) habit of letting aged fighters get in the ring far beyond their expiration date or in the business of the wacky social-media-created bouts.

Rather, Friday night represents our ability to take a good, close (and perhaps final) look at Amanda Serrano, Katie Taylor and consider the potential of women’s boxing.

As they square off again following their breakthrough Madison Square Garden first fight two years ago that drew 19,287 to their main event, seven-division champion Serrano 47-2-1 (31 KOs) and undisputed super-lightweight champion Taylor 23-1 (6 KOs) are reportedly earning a combined $14 million for their co-main event to Mike Tyson versus Jake Paul at AT&T Stadium outside Dallas.

Let those dollars soak in.

What it tells you is we should be seeing more of this.

With more investment by promoters, more character development and eagerness by the boxing media to cover women’s boxing and more appreciation by the fans, boxing has the ability here to tap into a revenue source that it all too often turns its back on.

Look back at the show Taylor and Serrano put on in their first fight, which started so memorably with the impassioned Serrano enthusiastically smiling and sharing the thought, “This is crazy!” with Taylor as they received their in-ring instructions.

By the time Taylor won the heartfelt battle, she said she couldn’t even hear the final bell because of the thrill from the boisterous crowd.

That was such a deserved night – both to Taylor and Serrano and to women’s boxing, which for so long has been set aside as undercard matches with recent exceptions including bouts promoted by Matchroom and Top Rank.

On Thursday’s edition of ProBox TV’s “Top Stories,” former welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi recalled watching a gifted female fighter named Melissa Salamone (Del Valle) who built a 28-0 record from 1997 to 2003 with only scant attention.

Malignaggi said back then he reflected “how good a fighter this was, and she got no recognition.”

Unfortunately, for too long that position was a matter of accepting a “Welcome to the club” mentality that has included Serrano, who for years fought in New York amid minimal fanfare, and even Taylor, who despite her Irish heroine stature as a 2012 Olympic gold medalist, was slotted as the first of three undercard fights to the June 2019 heavyweight title fight between Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz Jnr at MSG.

Her fight that night, a majority decision over Delfine Persoon for the undisputed women’s lightweight title, was also a classic.

The recent welterweight title victory by Mikaela Mayer over Sandy Ryan in September was also an inspired battle that followed Mayer’s entertaining and bitter rivalry with Alycia Baumgardner.

Turning the mirror on ourselves, we as boxing journalists need to do a better job in outworking and rejecting the notion that women’s boxing doesn’t attract readership and viewers and file the stories anyway.

The lesson held more than a decade ago when the candid and dominant Ronda Rousey became the most popular fighter in the UFC stable, convincing Dana White to permit women’s divisions.

Former company executive Nakisa Bidarian witnessed the Rousey phenomenon up close and now runs Jake Paul’s MVP Promotions, and their support of Serrano has brought her riches she never thought possible only a few short years ago.

Add in unbeaten multi-division champion Claressa Shields and fellow belt-wearers Gabriela Fundora, Savannah Marshall and Franchon Crews Dezurn and Friday night super-middleweight title-fight slugger Shadasia Green, and the reach is there allowing the women to continue to elevate.

“There are certain women who stand out … (they) can fight,” Malignaggi said. “There’s got to be a home for them. You work so hard, spending your own money (to develop). 

“With women (fighters), so often, it was an unrealized dream (them fighting and) nobody’s ever going to know them. It’s not until now that there’s ever been a ceiling to reach. Amanda’s (might have been) one of those stories you’re never going to hear.”

Fellow ProBox TV analyst Chris Algieri, who also has known Serrano for years around the New York boxing scene and followed Taylor on that 2019 MSG card, agreed that if not for the promotional boost, a highly skilled champion with knockout power “would’ve gone into obscurity.”

Serrano’s fortunes changed, and so should those of her female peers.