Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano meet again for pride and greatness

With their legacies secure, Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano meet again on Friday.

Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano will not be fighting for legacy in their rematch Friday night, in the featured undercard bout on the much-hyped Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson fight card from Texas.

That’s because their legacies are secure. Taylor and Serrano are two of the most important figures in the still-brief history of women’s boxing, a pair of fighters who have their arguments for being the best to ever do it.

Taylor, 38, began her journey by not taking “no” for an answer from boxing gyms at home in Ireland, eventually becoming something of a fire-starter for the women’s side of the sweet science as an amateur. A lightweight gold medalist at the 2012 Olympics — the first Summer Games to showcase women’s boxing — Taylor’s fights set decibel records in London, and she became an instant phenom in the eyes of the world, but amateur boxing fans already knew her.

The Irish star had already been an incredibly decorated amateur prior to London 2012, and overall in her run before turning pro in 2016, she won six gold medals at the European Championships, five at the EU Championships, one at the European Games, and five at the World Championships.

There was some belief, in fact, that Taylor had seen the game start to pass her by in 2016. She won bronze at the World Championships that year, before a disappointing exit at the Rio Olympics, short of the medal rounds.

The amateur game have have started to catch up with her, but Taylor’s decision to turn pro gave women’s boxing in the paid ranks a real star. She claimed her first world title by taking the WBA lightweight belt from Anahi Ester Sanchez in just her seventh pro fight, and fully unified the division in 2019 with a win over Delfine Persoon.

Taylor has not been short of some close calls in her pro career, including that win over Persoon and in their rematch in 2020. She also provided some exciting nights along the way, but none more exciting than her historic Madison Square Garden main event against Serrano in 2022.

Serrano, now 36, didn’t go through the amateur ranks the way Taylor did, turning pro in 2009 at the age of 20.

Taylor’s pro debut seven years later was heavily hyped, as she joined the pro ranks on a Matchroom Boxing event at London’s Wembley Arena. Serrano, on the other hand, made her pro debut with a four-round majority decision win over Jackie Trivilino at the Washington Avenue Armory in Albany, New York.

Taylor’s debut was seen around the world. Serrano’s was seen by however many people were in attendance that night. In fact, every fight of Taylor’s career has been seen around the world, while Serrano struggled for years to get any real exposure, toiling away before women’s boxing started getting more of a considered push by promoters with the pro debuts of Taylor and Claressa Shields in 2016.

But Serrano has had more than her share of success. She won her first world title in 2011 at 130 lbs, and has bounced around weight classes for all her career, fighting where she could find the opportunities, daring opponents to be better than her.

Many fighters have won world titles in multiple weight divisions, but few in as many as Serrano, and none on the sort of winding path she took. Usually, fighters just go up in weight, up in weight, up in weight. It’s an obvious career path. But Serrano won world titles at, in order, 130 lbs, then 135, 126, 122, 118, 140, and 115 — the latter two came in back-to-back fights, four months apart.

That first fight between Taylor and Serrano was a genuine instant classic. It wasn’t just the hype behind it (which saw Eddie Hearn and Jake Paul do some of the actual best promotional work in recent memory), it was that when fight night came, with MSG packed and roaring thanks to incredible turnouts from fans on both sides, the fighters brought it. In an action-packed, hard-hitting sprint through 10 rounds, Taylor and Serrano left everything in the ring, and earned every ounce of that incredible reception, lived up to all the hype and hope.

Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images

In the end, two judges saw it for Taylor, and one for Serrano. Fan opinion seemed to lean a bit more toward Serrano, who had more visibly hurt Taylor a couple times, but it was an incredibly competitive fight, and a total win for women’s boxing and for both combatants, whose profiles were raised higher than ever before.

A rematch could have come immediately, but didn’t. It was meant to happen in 2023, but Serrano pulled out late, creating an opening for Chantelle Cameron to call out Taylor for an undisputed fight at her weight, 140 lbs. Cameron handed Taylor her first loss in Dublin — which was Katie’s first fight in her home country — before losing the rematch six months later.

Since the Taylor fight, Serrano has gone 4-0, including three title defenses as a featherweight. Once again, the rematch was inked for this past summer, but along with the rest of the Paul vs Tyson event, was delayed several more months.

But it’s here on Friday. It’s happening again.

The question now is, can they match that first fight?

Being realistic, probably not. They were the main event the first time around, and Madison Square Garden was filled by their fans. This show will be in a stadium — which is rarely the best atmosphere for boxing in the first place — and those in attendance will largely be lookie-loos intrigued by the idea of a 27-year-old social media curiosity in some sort of fight against a 58-year-old legend who hasn’t been in a boxing ring in over 19 years, and hasn’t really looked good in one in longer than that.

They are also both in the latter stages of their careers, and have basically proven all they can prove. Taylor has passed her peak, though she remains one of the best in the sport, same for Serrano. Does Serrano, years into her lucrative deal with Jake Paul, still have the hunger that she used to possess? It never really works out that way in boxing.

But these are proud fighters, and while there is a deep, mutual admiration between the two of them, they are world-class competitors, too. Taylor will want to silence skeptics from five years ago. Serrano will want to back up those who have always felt she deserved the win in that fight.

What they have to fight for, then, is greatness, both as individuals and as a duo — and for women’s boxing as a whole. The two will soon make way for a new generation, and will have left this sport far better than they found it with their hard work, determination, and excellence, and no result on Friday can change that.

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