By: Sean Crose
“A potential Croke Park rematch between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano has been ruled out for this year,” writes The Irish Times, “after the Irish boxer’s promoter Eddie Hearn suggested that the Serrano camp turned down the offer of a second bout.” If this news is true – And who can tell when it comes to the sport of boxing? – then Ireland, and fight fans across the globe, are going to miss out on a highly anticipated bout. The first fight between Taylor and Serrano, which went down at New York’s Madison Square Garden last spring, was a classic, one which saw Taylor squeak by with a close decision win. Most would agree a rematch was certainly in order.
According to Hearn, however, team Serrano isn’t interested. Team Serrano itself hasn’t weighed in publicly on this matter, but when big fights fail to be made, there tends to be finger pointing on both sides. “They don’t want that fight, unfortunately,” Hearn said of Team Serrano – which is led by the controversial Jake Paul – to Pro Boxing Fans. “I mean we’ve spoken to Jake Paul’s team and they don’t really want to go to Ireland. They don’t really want the rematch. It’s kind of like, regardless of the offer, we don’t want to do the rematch.”
Frustrating news for fight fans, especially fans of women’s boxing, which truly benefitted from the first Taylor-Serrano bout. All the old arguments that suggested a women’s boxing match couldn’t compete with a men’s boxing match went out the window during the epic battle between Ireland’s Taylor and Puerto Rico’s Serrano. No doubt over the next five or six months the bout will be a serious fight of the year contender – and deservedly so. Which, of course, makes news of the rematch falling apart harder for fans to swallow.
With all that in mind, UFC great Chris Cyborg has reportedly made it clear she’s willing to step into the ring with Taylor. “I am ready to sit down and talk to Eddie whenever he is ready,” Cyborg said to the Irish Mirror. “Right now he has mentioned my name in the media a few times, but for me I am serious about getting into boxing and if he is serious about being my promoter then I would love to talk to him.” The world may have already seen too many UFC-Boxing hybrid matches (they generally take place in the ring, which usually means the boxer wins), but if Serrano is truly out of the picture, Taylor-Cyborg may recoup some of the attention that’s lost on Taylor’s next fight.