We've been talking a lot of boxing on this cite recently and I guess we're just going to keep that rolling because this past Saturday was probably the best boxing match I had ever watched. Katie Taylor vs Amanda Serrano was the first women's combat sports event to headline Madison Square Garden and man did it deliver. I am very much a boxing casual, as I've made clear before, but that was as into a boxing match as I've ever been. I honestly didn't know too much about either fighter coming into this beyond just the basics. Obviously, I saw some of the build up and knew they were 1 and 2 pound for pound, but that was about it. I had seen Amanda Serrano fight before on whichever Jake Paul card she was on, but that was pretty much it for me. I don't really have a point to this or like an end goal that I'm working towards in this post, but I'm just going to talk about my thoughts coming out of it.
As I've made pretty clear, I watch the MMA Hour every time it is on, so I've been hearing about this fight for a few months now or however long Ariel and others have been talking about it. I really hadn't gotten that into the build up because I really didn't know anything about the fighters. As it got closer, a lot more people seemed to be getting more excited for it and at that point, I committed myself to really wanting to see how it played out. I assumed that the first women's combat sport to headline MSG was chosen for a reason, so I was expecting good things, but at the same time, I really didn't know too much about the fighters. My expectations were a bit limited because I wasn't familiar enough with either woman to know how the styles would match up and that kind of stuff. I didn't watch really any of the earlier fights on the card because I was watching the UFC event and Chito Vera vs Rob Font finish up. After that, I switched over and the electricity in the building was a shock to the system. I went from the UFC Apex where I could hear all 17 people screaming for Andrei Arlovski to a packed crowd that was going absolutely wild. The walkouts were fantastic and to not get a drop off or have crowd sway more towards one of the fighters heightened the atmosphere. I hadn't really prepared myself for that level of intensity, so once the intros were so loud, I actually got into it even more.
Once the fight actually started, Katie Taylor looked really good early. Serrano wasn't getting destroyed or overwhelmed, but it looked like Taylor was just going to be a bit better. I believe it was the fifth round where all of the sudden the fight got flipped on it's head. Serrano started really hitting Taylor with some solid shots and was putting it on her to the point where the fight looked like it may be finished. Taylor was able to survive the round and get back to her corner, but she still didn't look particularly great. She came out for the sixth and Serrano was still fighting really well and, maybe she wasn't in as much trouble as in the fifth, she was still losing the round in a noticeable way. Even after that round, the vibe around the fight seemed like Taylor wasn't going to make it to the scorecards. I've seen more than a couple of people suggest that Serrano took the 7th round off and I think they even said something to that extent on the actual broadcast, so I'll take their word for it. Hindsight being what it is, that doesn't look to have been a great decision as Taylor took some of the momentum back and then didn't give it up for the rest of the fight. Taylor was able to win out the rest of the rounds in my estimation and ended up winning by a split decision. From the midpoint of the fight on, it was absolutely chaos and I loved every second of it. Serrano got Taylor to open up a bit more and she almost finished the fight in the fifth and still had a really good sixth. Down the stretch, the rounds often divulged into the two just trading shots and it felt like either could fall at any time. That was the perfect cap to a fantastic night of competition, even if I didn't see the Stevenson fight.
I don't know what significance this fight will hold historically, if any, but I'm just glad that I got to see it. Only time will tell what this meant for women's boxing, but it will only go up from here. As I've made clear, I'm definitely not a boxing hardcore and probably watch single digit boxing matches a year, but that definitely has me interested in what both of these women do next. Whenever Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor are on the schedule next, I think there's a really high chance that I'm watching. The Eddie Hearn interview on the MMA Hour threw out some interesting ideas and I'm open to all of them. The rematch between those two has to be the first option in my mind because that fight was so great that to not do it again is almost irresponsible. There's too much money to be made for all parties to really go any other direction. If for some reason that fight can't get made, they provided other options that I would most certainly watch as well. Cris Cyborg and Holly Holm probably wouldn't be as competitive of fights for Taylor as Serrano was, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be some fun. I wouldn't choose them over the Serrano rematch, but if they have to go elsewhere, there's certainly worse options than those. Serrano typically fights when Jake Paul does, but I assume that would be way too quick of a turnaround, so we'll see what her options are. She's a bit smaller than Taylor, so I'm not sure what the options would be for her, but after that fight, I'm assuming she's going to be able to get whatever fight she wants.
That's really all I have to say I think. There was no greater point I was looking to make, I just wanted to give this fight one more day in the news before the world moves on to the next set of fights because it was an awesome night. If you haven't seen it, I would highly recommend checking it out. Knowing the result won't take away from it at all because of how great the atmosphere is. What did you guys think? How did you score the fight? Do you want to see the immediate rematch? Or would you prefer they go in another direction? Leave your thoughts and comments. Thanks for reading and have a good one.
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