INSEPARABLE
was another case of wondering who was going to get the nod. Most expected Serrano to even things up, but again, it was Taylor, this time via three scores of 95-94. It was a crushing blow for Serrano, but a reported 50 million Netflix households saw it happen. Fast-forward to July 11 and the third meeting. Fighting again in Madison Square Garden, the friendly rivals weren’t as friendly this time, presumably tired of seeing each other in the ring. But this one was bigger than the first two and more important for the sport.
performance, a very clever performance,” said Taylor at the post-fight press conference. “This performance, I knew what I was capable of against Amanda. The two fights previously ended up as complete wars and I came out of the ring battered and bruised, and I’m thinking, ‘Why am I just standing there?’ I was outboxing her and I’m just happy I was able to produce that tonight and execute the game plan that Ross has been telling me to do all along.” Luckily, while recency bias will judge the third fight harshly in comparison to the first two, history will remember that
watched the second Taylor-Serrano fight and made sure she had her Netflix raring to go for the third one. No other women’s fight comes close. In fact, the only one in the history of the game that might have – Christy Martin vs. Lucia Rijker – never happened. I spoke to Martin before Taylor-Serrano 3 and asked her if a fight with Rijker would have been a game-changer for the sport. She didn’t think so. “Women’s boxing was on the rise at that time,” said Martin. “Don King had given me personally a great platform fighting under Mike Tyson on those huge
Serrano’s promoter, Most Valuable Promotions, signed a host of the top fighters in women’s boxing in the lead- up to the fight, and they would be featured on the all-female undercard. The women on the card, from top to bottom, would be paid fair purses while getting worldwide exposure on Netflix. For Taylor and Serrano, it was mission accomplished. For the sport. As for the championship of each other,
shows, and it would’ve just helped elevate women’s boxing to a little higher level than it was at that time. But would it have done for women’s boxing what Taylor-Serrano did? Probably not.” Taylor-Serrano 1 was the perfect storm. It only got bigger from there. And as strong as women’s boxing is at the moment, we probably won’t see a series like this again. And that’s fine. A lot of fans want to see a fourth fight
“I’m just so grateful for Amanda Serrano ... And we created history together three times. My name will always be embedded with hers forever. ” - Katie Taylor
perhaps it’s unfair to call the third bout anticlimactic, but it certainly didn’t produce the nonstop action of the first two. Instead, Taylor boxed brilliantly, sticking and moving and avoiding the punches from Serrano that would have forced her into a brawl in the previous 20 rounds they fought. Serrano was game throughout, and it was still a competitive fight, but the two-minute rounds flew by and seemingly ended just when she was starting to catch a rhythm. At the end of 10 rounds, the scores of 97-93 twice were more based in reality than judge Mark Lyson’s 95-95, and just like that, Katie Taylor was 3-0 over Amanda Serrano. “I thought I showed a very smart
the second Ali-Frazier and Gatti-Ward fights weren’t as good as the first and third ones, while Taylor-Serrano 3 wasn’t the epic that the first two were. And honestly, how can you criticize any series that forces two fighters to dig deep and find out who they are within the confines of a four-sided ring? Serrano proved that she was an all-time great who could deliver against a bigger, more decorated opponent. Taylor, who will also be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, proved that she could change her strategy and fight a disciplined fight against someone who took her into some dark places in their first two fights. Taylor and Serrano together produced the first true superfight in the history of women’s boxing – then did it twice more. The ladies have delivered good fights over the years, compelling fights, fights that got the attention of fans, even if just for a moment, but there’s been nothing like this. My mother, who is 85 years old,
between the two, but even before the third, the 36-year-old Serrano had seen enough of Taylor, saying that even if she won that third fight, she was OK with walking off behind in the final tally, two wins to one. As for the 39-year-old Taylor, many believed that her final ring appearance was going to be on July 11, and that still may be the case for a fighter with nothing left to prove and no bigger fights than the three she had with the Puerto Rican kid from Brooklyn who started this whole journey just for fun as a teenager. “I’m just so grateful for Amanda Serrano,” said Taylor. “What an amazing champion. And we created history together three times. My name will always be embedded with hers forever. I’m very, very happy about that. What we’ve been able to create over these last few years has been unbelievable. It’s amazing to have a rival like that in the sport.”
Fight three was less intense, but both women scored with flush punches.
76 RINGMAGAZINE.COM
RINGMAGAZINE.COM 77
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker