Katie Taylor, Amanda Serrano ready for historic showdown at Madison Square Garden
- Iconic venue will host its first women’s main event when undisputed lightweight champion Taylor takes on Serrano
- ‘To headline Madison Square Garden, and for it to be almost sold out – and people say there’s no interest in women’s boxing,’ Serrano says
Ireland’s Katie Taylor once dreamed she could help launch women’s boxing to a seminal event – like her Saturday night clash with seven-division champion Amanda Serrano at Madison Square Garden.
Serrano, a Puerto Rican from Brooklyn, spent many years seeing those same hopes dashed no matter how many titles she won or how many foes she mercilessly roughed up.
Their fight, the first-ever women’s main event at the hallowed boxing ground where Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier I sparred more than 50 years ago, arrives in a rare moment when boxing is acting like a mainstream sport and setting aside its sideshow antics.
An electrified gathering of 94,000 attended heavyweight champion Tyson Fury’s Saturday title defence in England. Unbeaten welterweight champions Errol Spence Jnr and Terence Crawford are as close to striking a deal to fight as they’ve ever been. And the sport has now fully embraced major women’s bouts.
“Boxing is alive right now,” US Olympic silver medallist Shakur Stevenson said. “A lot of people have tried to act like boxing is dying. No, it’s evolved. This is the best time.”