AFTER a magnificent display of boxing from both women, Katie Taylor has retained her title as the undisputed super lightweight champion of the world.
Both fighters exhibited the very best of the sport and of each other but it was Taylor’s night as boos echoed around the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The fight was a pure exhibition of the sweet science from both fighters as Katie Taylor was rocked early on in the first round but found her way back in the fight and held back the ferocious challenge of Amanda ‘The Real Deal’ Serrano.
The first round belonged to Serrano after she caught Taylor with a left hook that shook the Bray fighter and the Puerto Rican landed a nice combo at the end of the first two minutes.
The second round was a closer affair with both fighters landing nice shots against each other but Taylor was keeping her distance after that first-round wake-up call and feeling her way into the fight.
A third of the way into the fight, it seemed that Serrano was just shading it with the shots that she was landing and Taylor’s focus was primarily on defence and finding her rhythm in this fight.
In the fourth round, Taylor sharted to show why she was the undisputed super lightweight champion, taking the round and coming out of the two minutes in the mix and looking dangerous.
By the halfway point of this fight, it seemed almost too close to call with Serrano fighting back after a rough fourth round and laying into Taylor just as she had at the same stage in 2022 at Madison Square Garden.
In the sixth round, the referee called a timeout due to the cut above Serrano’s right as it was opened more when the fighters' stance styles clashed but the Puerto Rican showed why she was ‘The Real Deal’ and continued.
To my fans I’m going to always give it everything I have. I’m a ruthless warrior & Katie is my buddy but Damn her best attribute is her head. No punching power but hard ass head lol. pic.twitter.com/6WlyNUH5Uj
— Amanda Serrano (@Serranosisters) November 16, 2024
The seven-division champion’s team claimed that Taylor was a “dirty fighter” for leading with her head and opening the cut on Serrano’s head.
The fighters started to throw caution to the wind in the seventh, letting guards slip in favour of landing punches.
Serrano, who was bleeding a lot from that eye, managed to mark Taylor’s face and warn her opponent not to square up to her in a round in which they landed a total of 87 punches in that round.
In the eighth, the Bray bomber was fairly handed a one-point deduction for a headbutt on Serrano, causing her cut to further open after warnings on holding and leading with her head.
In the second last round, Taylor still took the fight to her opponent, but Serrano fought back and gave as good and landed some good punches but it wasn’t enough to take the round away from the Irish queen of boxing.
In the last round, Taylor and Serrano were unleashing shots on each other and Serrano managed to return the favour and break skin on Taylor as attack was the order of the round.
Both fighters showed why people couldn’t get enough of their fights and why they bring the best out of each other, with huge combinations being exchanged as the fight drew to a close.
After the fight, Taylor and Serrano confirmed they wanted a third fight to continue their historic rivalry and give the fans another incredible display of claimed.
