Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano, billed as ''For History'', was a women's

lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) weight class in the sport of boxing. Notable lightweight boxe ...

professional boxing Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse bid, purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regula ...

match contested between undisputed world champion, Katie Taylor, and seven-division world champion,

Amanda Serrano Amanda Serrano (born October 9, 1988) is a Puerto Rican professional boxer, mixed martial artist and professional wrestler. As a boxer, she is the unified featherweight world champion, having held the WBO title since 2019 and the WBC and IBO ...

. The bout was held on April 30, 2022, at

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, with Taylor's undisputed lightweight titles on the line. It was the first women's boxing match to headline Madison Square Garden, and was described as the 'biggest women's fight of all time'. Taylor defeated Serrano by split decision. The fight was universally acclaimed, being named Fight of the Year by

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

and Event of the Year by ''The Ring''.

Background

Taylor and Serrano were originally scheduled to fight each other at the

Manchester Arena Manchester Arena, currently referred to as the AO Arena for sponsorship reasons, is an indoor arena in Manchester, England, immediately north of the Manchester city centre, city centre and partly above Manchester Victoria station in air rights s ...

on May 2, 2020. However, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the bout was postponed and rescheduled to 4 July, with the venue changing to the Matchroom Sport headquarters in

Brentwood, Essex Brentwood is a town in the Borough of Brentwood, in the county of Essex in the East of England. It is in the London commuter belt, situated 20 miles (30 km) east-north-east of Charing Cross and close by the M25 motorway. In 2017, the popula ...

. After being postponed for a second time, Taylor’s promoter Eddie Hearn revealed he was in talks to secure a rematch between Taylor and

Delfine Persoon Delfine Persoon (; born 14 January 1985) is a Belgian professional boxer. She held the IBF female lightweight title in 2012 and the WBC female lightweight title from 2014 to June 2019, losing the title in a unification fight against Katie Tayl ...

, who Taylor had beaten to become the undisputed lightweight champion on the undercard of Anthony Joshua vs. Andy Ruiz Jr. On July 9, it was confirmed that the Taylor vs. Persoon rematch would take place on August 22 on the undercard of

Dillian Whyte vs. Alexander Povetkin Dillian Whyte vs Alexander Povetkin was a heavyweight professional boxing match contested between the defending WBC interim champion Dillian Whyte and former world champion Alexander Povetkin, with Whyte's WBC interim and the inaugural WBC D ...

. Taylor won the fight by

unanimous decision A unanimous decision (UD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and other sports involving striking and submission in which all three judges agree on which fighter ...

. On January 27, 2022, the bout was officially announced to be taking place on 30 April 2022 at

. The fight was co-promoted by Hearn's Matchroom Boxing and

Jake Paul Jake Joseph Paul (born January 17, 1997) is an American media personality and professional boxer. He initially rose to fame on Vine, before playing the role of Dirk Mann on the Disney Channel series ''Bizaardvark'' for two seasons. Throughout ...

's Most Valuable Promotions, who are the respective promoters of Taylor and Serrano, and was broadcast live on DAZN. Taylor already held a victory over Amanda's sister

Cindy Cindy may refer to: People *Cindy (given name), a list of people named Cindy, Cindi, Cyndi or Cyndy *Tugiyati Cindy (born 1985), Indonesian footballer Music * ''Cindy'' (musical), an off-Broadway production in 1964 and 1965 * "Cindy" (folk song ...

, having defeated her by unanimous decision in October 2018. During a press conference for the fight, Serrano, citing the historical nature of the contest, suggested that the fight be 12 three-minute rounds, as is the case in men's world championship boxing, rather than the women's standard of 10 two-minute rounds. Taylor dismissed this idea, saying ”I don't think it will make a huge difference to the event; it's already iconic as it is.”

Weigh-in

The weigh-in took place at the Hulu Theater in Madison Square Garden. As part of a promotional agreement with

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

, Serrano was announced to the stage by the

Raw Women's Champion The WWE Raw Women's Championship is a women's professional wrestling world championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE, defended on the Raw brand division. It is one of two women's world titles for WWE's main roster, along wi ...

Bianca Belair Bianca Blair Crawford (born Bianca Nicole Blair; April 9, 1989) is an American professional wrestler and a fitness and figure competitor. She is currently signed to WWE, where she performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Bianca Belair, and ...

, while Taylor was introduced by her compatriot Becky Lynch. Both women weighed in comfortably under the 135-pound

limit, with Serrano at 133.6 pounds and Taylor at 134.6 pounds.

Fight card

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Serrano Boxing matches 2022 in women's boxing 2022 in American sports 2022 in sports in New York City April 2022 sports events in the United States Boxing matches at Madison Square Garden