Undisputed female lightweight champion Katie Taylor (20-0, 6 KOs) and women’s P4P Amanda Serrano (42-1-1, 30 KOs) are set to clash at Madison Square Garden in New York City on April 30, live worldwide on DAZN. MSG has hosted thousands of fights through its illustrious years, beginning more than a century ago on July 17, 1882; now, 140 years later, this matchup marks the very first time two female fighters are headlining a combat sports event at ‘The World’s Most Famous Arena’.
Taylor and Serrano will come face-to-face in the Big Apple on the first leg of a global press tour next Wednesday, February 2. A London press conference will be held in early February. The fight not only be available worldwide on DAZN, but also through select cable & satellite pay-per-view providers in the U.S.
Presale begins at 12noon ET on Thursday February 3, with tickets on general sale at 12noon ET on Friday February 4 – tickets start at $56. To sign up to the exclusive presale, visit msg.Com/taylorserrano
I know this article is really selling this, and it will be available to the whole world. But, the truth is not a lot of people will care. As much as these 2 women deserve their accolades, the fact is women’s boxing is painful to watch. Between the ones who don’t like to see women getting hit, to the fans who need that spark in a fight that women just cannot deliver, neither this important fight nor any other involving females boxing will satisfy. It is why Lucia Rijker never made a major splash. The aggression, ferocity, punching power, speed and skill level that fans are used to and need, just aren’t present in women’s boxing. The only reason women’s boxing is making the strides it is right now, is because of guilt and social pressures to accept it. So, woke simps like Eddie Hearne, Lou Dibella and a couple of others are getting in the mix. You don’t see Al Haymon signing any women do you? And you won’t because he’s all about dollars and how to make them. Mayweather will likely never have a female boxer in his stable either.
Mayweather’s signed female fighters, he has Ava Knight right now. She fought on the Tank Davis – Cruz card. He’s also had Layla McCarter and Savannah Marshall turned pro with him, she fought on Mayweather’s card when he fought McGregor.
Female fighters headline all the time in Mexico. They have no power so the fights usually suck but female boxing seems popular down there for whatever reason. Serrano, who is the rare female who can punch, should beat Taylor, who like Claressa can’t break an egg. Arum is another promoter who pushes women’s boxing to prove how woke he is.
I will actually go to this. I think hearn will put on a decent card to support that main event. Some good up and coming UK fighters. Might get a decent seat for not too much cash as well
It’s boxing enjoy it period
“The aggression, ferocity, punching power, speed and skill level that fans are used to and need, just aren’t present in women’s boxing.”
I can see by the number of thumbs down that Chris’ post wasn’t very popular, but some interesting points were made here. Taylor-Serrano may get some interest from hard-core fans, but for those of you who want to be remotely real about this, women’s boxing will never consistently generate the same kinds of numbers that men’s boxing does. If not for the reasons listed above, then how else would you explain it? It gained popularity for a brief time back when Christy Martin & Lucia Rijker were at their peaks. Those two could punch, and were legitimately fun to watch, but there weren’t enough like them to sustain the brief surge of popularity back then. I don’t see the status of women’s boxing rising much above it’s current state. Unfortunate, because I’m sure there’s just as much hard work put in by the female fighters, and generally speaking, not as much of the annoying egos involved. Female MMA fights/fighters, however, seem to have gained a little more interest from the public than female boxing does for whatever reason.
I think it has something to do with the fact that men’s boxing had such a giant ‘head-start’. Guys have been boxing since the 1700’s in some form or another so when we see women boxing, what we do is to immediately compare it to something that is familiar – men’s boxing. But we don’t have female equivalents to John L Sullivan or Jack Johnson or Jack Dempsey. We just go back to, like you said, Martin & Rijker and that wasn’t very long ago at all. They’re both still around and in their 50’s.
MMA doesn’t have that problem. It’s still a pretty young sport and when a lot people began to take notice of it, there was Cyborg and Gina Carano and then there was Ronda Rousey. So, at least in my opinion, we don’t have as much of a tendency to compare it to men’s mma like we do with boxing.
I do think that it will grow quite a bit now, however, but surely never to the levels of men’s boxing. Places like Mexico, Argentina (I do not know how it started or why it grew like that, but there are SO many Argentine women boxers), Germany and Japan have always supported women’s boxing, but now we see it growing in places like England and Australia. And promoters like Hearn and DLH are signing up a bunch of fighters as well. I’m expecting that to continue.
@Lucie I was mainly speaking of the US when I said I didn’t think women’s boxing would ever be super popular. Overseas may be a different story. I remember reading that Marcela Acuna was hugely popular in Argentina back in the day. Her first two pro fights were against Christy Martin & Lucia Rijker, both losses, but she went on to have a decent career. I doubt she would have been much of a star if she lived and fought here. Not sure why it’s less popular here in the States.
A shorter history may have something to do with it, but judging by the comments I’ve read on this board over time, I think most just find it boring. I consider myself pretty open-minded, and I’ve watched several women’s boxing matches, but for me there are almost never must-see matches involving female fighters. Taylor-Serrano is one of the rare matches I’m interested in seeing. Outside of that, I’m rarely interested. A lot of the posters here seem to feel the same, and I think that some of the reasons Chris The Natural listed above have a lot to do with it. Wouldn’t mind seeing it gain popularity here, because as I said before, it’s always nice to see people’s hard work rewarded, but I have my doubts. Time will tell.
BTW, most of the popular female MMA fighters…..Nunes, Cyborg, Rousey, maybe Holm….could either punch, or at least submit their opponents most of the time. Maybe I’m wrong, because I don’t pay super close attention anymore, but how many really big punchers are there in women’s boxing. Seems to be a lot of low KO ratios from what I see. Most people aren’t on the edge of their seats when a KO is unlikely. Just my two cents….
That’s an excellent point you make that the finishing rate is probably higher in women’s mma than boxing (she lost her last fight but of the four girls you named, Cyborg, Rousey, Holm and Nunes – Amanda Nunes fought the other three and finished all of them inside of the first round) which would help its popularity. That’s a really good point. I could be wrong, I don’t have any stats to back it up), but I am starting to notice more decisions in the women’s mma that I watch (Holm, for example, hasn’t finished anyone in almost five years now) but I think that’s due to the quality of the fighters getting better – if I’m even correct about that.
I go back to what Chris said and what you quoted:
“The aggression, ferocity, punching power, speed and skill level that fans are used to and need, just aren’t present in women’s boxing.”
We’re “used to” it and we “need” it, in my opinion, because we grew up getting it in the sport from men. So when we see the same sport and we don’t get it, there’s something missing. For me it’s the same as someone saying they don’t like women’s basketball because they don’t have as many fastbreaks or dunks. You’re expecting dunks because you get it and have been getting it from watching men play for years and years. And it’s a valid reason, I’m not saying it’s wrong. The thing I usually find most frustrating about watching women’s boxing is the round length. Two guys fight 20 minutes and they’re in the seventh round. Mikaela Mayer and Maiva Hamadouche fought 20 minutes in one of the best women’s fights I’ve ever seen and that’s the end of a unification world championship fight.
I think it’s coming up in the US. Again, it will never be as popular as men’s boxing, it won’t even come close to being half as popular. But when I see this fight here, that I was fully expecting to be somewhere in the UK, headlining at MSG, that’s a good sign for me.
I didn’t realize Holm hadn’t scored a stoppage in nearly five years. I’m a VERY casual fan of MMA, men or women, as well as women’s boxing, so my comments here are not all that well informed I guess. FWIW, I’m not very interested in MMA as a whole, but I’m at least as interested in women’s MMA as I am of men’s. I particularly enjoyed watching Amanda Nunes, who, at her best, was as entertaining as anybody in that sport, and was probably my favorite fighter in all of MMA. She was an total bad ass. That fight with Cyborg was an absolute shootout, and was the best MMA fight I’ve seen, male or female. Her demolition of Rousey was damn impressive as well. There’s nobody like her in female boxing though. Nobody who can create anything close to that kind of excitement as far as I’m concerned. Christy Martin was fun to watch. She got really good leverage on her punches, and swung for the fences with every damn punch. She was a rarity though.
The basketball analogy is a good one. Take away the monster dunks, and the game resembles maybe pre-Wilt Chamberlain men’s basketball, which is probably on the dull side for a lot of people. Cecilia Braekhus was a long reigning champion. Good Looking. Good ambassador for the sport from what I hear. Somebody who is very unlikely to embarrass the sport in any way (ala Adrien Broner). 36-0 (9 KOs) before McCaskill. Seems like the type who is VERY easy to root for, but I never bothered to watch a single fight of her’s. Just highlights once or twice. The interest is simply not there. Life isn’t always fair, and the fact that I, and probably many other boxing fans would rather watch the ultimate douche Broner in a semi-meaningless fight over prime Cecilia Braekhus is proof of that (not to mention Broner would probably get paid a lot more). Sucks, but it is what it is….
Thanks for bolstering my point and I did not put down the fighters themselves and said they deserved props, but I expected the thumb downs because most boxing sites are inhabited by woke, low IQ’d dependents who either are incapable or afraid to think for themselves.
Taylor’s getting up there she’s 35 now and she’s had a couple of closer fights than usual, especially against Jonas. But she’s also naturally much larger. She’s been a lightweight her entire career and Serrano has been as low as superbantam and it was only three years ago. I’m leaning towards Serrano by decision, but I think it can go either way.
Hey Listen Chris it seems you Serrano see Serranos fights in the last couple the years,The female fights sometime are better the man open you mind,
At least they priced the cheap seats better than DKP is pricing his event in Ohio. If you want more people to attend ladies boxing with shorter rounds and less KO’s the prices have to reflect that. Can’t beat the level of the main event tho.
Now this is a great matchup! I will go further by saying that it’s the most anticipated women’s fight at the moment! You have a Champion in Taylor who had amazing amateur background, good fundamentals and athleticism going up against the greatest female ever! I mean damn, titles in 7 weight categories and knock outs galore!! Will definitely be watching! As for folks that say women’s boxing is hard to watch, yes I agree, especially when it’s Jessica McCaskill!!! Ugh!!!!
How is Katie Taylor women’s #1 pound for pound? Shields should be women’s #1 pound for pound. But this is an epic match up.
Katie isn’t the number 1 P4P. Serrano is. I wouldn’t put Shields there due to the competition at her weight class being so thin.
YESS!!!! So There.
Good matchup, women deserve all respect just like a male fighter
They also are risking their lives the moment they step into that ring
I only disagree with the 2 minute rounds they should also do 3 minutes
Equality is only fair and right
By the way
Siniesa Estrada is a beast
Don’t know Serrano so cannot comment but Taylor is definitely NOT mega-fight material.
This is going to be a good fight