Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano: Boxing Preview – Inside SCOPE – HERstory

By: Kirk Jackson

The pride of Ireland Katie Taylor (20-0-0, 6 KO’s) takes on the pride of Puerto Rico and New York (via Brooklyn) Amanda Serrano (42-1-1, 30 KO’s) for the WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO World Female Lightweight titles from Madison Square Garden in New York.

Truly an historic match-up between two of the top fighters in all of boxing – no. 1 and no. 2 respectively across ESPN’s Women’s boxing pound-for-pound rankings. Although Claressa Shields (12-0, 2 KO’s) has a solid argument for the no. 1 position, as the only undisputed champion across two weight divisions (154 lbs. and 160 lbs.) while also collecting a pair of titles in a third weight class at 168 lbs.

This is an event that should further catapult women’s boxing to the forefront of sports and garner well-deserved attention for some of the world’s greatest athletes.

“The amount of media we have had to do all week was huge. I’m sick of talking about myself but it’s been an amazing week so far. This is definitely very different than how I started boxing when I was eight or nine years old,” said Taylor.

“Like Eddie [Hearn] said, I had to pretend I was a boy to get fights. Women’s boxing wasn’t even a sanctioned sport in Ireland. Now here we are many years later headlining MSG, the most iconic venue in boxing. Making history as the biggest women’s boxing match in history is just incredible. This is all of the sacrifice that I have been working for, for sure.”

“The fact that this is going to be a sell out on Saturday night, there is a great appetitive for female fights and this is very special. It’s the best versus the best and it’s just a great boxing match. This isn’t just the best female fight you can see right now – it’s the best fight you can watch right now, male or female.”

Tale of the Tape

Taylor for her part, is quite the decorated amateur and professional boxer. As an amateur, Taylor won five consecutive gold medals at the Women’s World Championships, gold six times at the European Championships, and gold five times at the European Union Championships. Taylor also won gold at the 2012 Olympic games in London.

As a professional, she captured a world title in her seventh fight, became a unified champion in her ninth and became the undisputed champion at 135-pounds in 14 fights. Taylor also captured the WBO junior-welterweight title back in 2019, defeating Christina Linardatou.

“I don’t train to lose any fights. I train to win. I’m going to step in there confident that I will come out victorious. The best part about this fight is being able to inspire the next generation. This fight on Saturday night is going to inspire a lot of young girls and that to me is the best part about this.” – Katie Tayor

Keys to Victory for Katie Taylor:

• Hand speed is Taylor’s major advantage and must be consistently fluid with her combination punching.
• Must get her shots off and utilize safe, effective escape routes while exiting to avoid counter-punches at the tail end of her combinations.
• Stay off the ropes and do not become a stationary target.
• Understand Serrano’s intentions; meaning she’ll have to counter Serrano’s strategy of pressure and catch her coming in.
• While throwing in combination, do not let off every bullet in the chamber; throw in sets of two punches and three punches and be sure to step off afterwards – again to exit safely and limit Serrano’s counter punches.

Serrano is the only woman, and Puerto Rican, to win world titles in more than four weight classes, and holds the Guinness World Record for the most boxing world championships won in different weight-classes by a female, having held 9 major world titles across seven different weight classes.

Weight Classes competed in:

• Super flyweight
• Bantamweight
• Super bantamweight
• Featherweight
• Super featherweight
• Lightweight
• Light welterweight

“One of my goals is to become undisputed champion and she [Katie Taylor] has that and I’m going up, once again, two divisions to fight one of the best fighters in the world.” –  Amanda Serrano

Keys to Victory for Amanda Serrano:

• Serrano must apply mental and physical pressure and keep Taylor on her backfoot.
• Force exchanges and implement timing to throw off Taylor’s hand speed.
• Serrano will have to catch Taylor at the end of her combinations and find ways to land punches in between Taylor’s combinations.
• Cut the ring off and control the ring real estate.
• Take advantage of Taylor’s lack of head movement.
• While being the aggressor, it’s imperative to cut off the ring and to be savvy while in pursuit. Cannot allow Taylor to pile points by allowing her to get shots off as Serrano comes in.

“It’s been a long time and it’s finally happening. Now I’ll shine thanks to all of you guys at Madison Square Garden,” said Serrano.

“I couldn’t ask for a better place to make history once again. Sitting here I made history. I won my golden gloves here at the Hulu Theater. And I made history on DAZN with you becoming a seven-division world champion and I plan to do the same thing at the big garden. It’s my first time there. I shine under pressure.”

“It’s been an amazing long journey getting here to fight Katie Taylor. Timing is no better than right now. I am so looking forward to Saturday,” added Serrano.

Another element of the story, Katie is looking for a clean sweep of the Serrano sisters, while Amanda is looking to exact revenge on behalf of her sister Cindy.

Both Taylor and Serrano want to extend their dominance, add perhaps the most signature feather to their impressive, respective caps, regarding opponents faced.

“Our accomplishments got us where we at right now and we are making history together. No matter what happens on Saturday night, this is for the fans, women in general, and women in boxing and women’s boxing is only going to grow more,” said Serrano.

The main event features two queens fighting for legacy, supremacy and for the future of women’s boxing. Not only are they breaking barriers, but they’re also making HERstory.