Ordinarily, a third meeting in boxing is to break the tie, but, despite undisputed light-welterweight champion Taylor holding a 2-0 advantage from previous meetings, this final chapter feels like day one. Their initial fight at MSG in 2022 broke new ground, selling out the 20,000-capacity venue as the first female boxers to headline, producing a 10-round classic from which Ireland’s Taylor emerged narrowly victorious, leaving fight fans craving more.
Two years down and they went at it once more, in Texas this time, in a bout which Taylor once more edged, but there were opinions in the aftermath that Serrano should have been awarded the victory even though she took a horrific gash to her right eye that could be a factor on Friday if it closes.
Either way, Taylor followed up on that first victory, so why do it once more? It is cost-effective since Jake Paul’s MVP Promotions and Netflix are paying both women their highest career payment. That is a consequence of what they create – drama and tension – making this newest instalment as hotly awaited as their first. Their initial altercation raked in $1m (£737,000) each, having that revenue quadrupled when they boxed in Texas, with over 50million viewers watching a tense rematch, which is solidly in the mainstream.
The New York venue was the stage for the opening act in one of the sport’s most iconic trilogies when Joe Frazier handed Muhammad Ali his first loss, only for ‘The Greatest’ to exact revenge over their ensuing two contests. Arturo Gatti v Micky Ward will be remembered as the ultimate trilogy to all eternity, and this bout is part of the same cloth, and, as for fantastic female sporting battles, it’s equal to the best.
Tennis had its Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova decade of the 1970s and 1980s, the mantle taken up by Steffi Graf and Monica Seles before the wonderful sibling rivalry of the Williams sisters, Serena and Venus.
Basketball has more recently given us Caitlin Clark v Angel Reese, while Jamaican sprinters Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Elaine Thompson-Herah will be eternally linked. Taylor and Serrano are certainly in that category and, over time, could be best remembered of them all.
Two are needed to tango, and the two have turned out to be the perfect dance partners, their styles complementing each other perfectly, and, as we head towards round 21, there is little doubt we are in for another fight-of-the-year candidate.
Even with Taylor having all the aces, she is the ‘B-side’ for this week, with Serrano having all of the perceived ‘house fighter’ benefits in terms of entering the ring second but, most notably, successfully agitating to have this fight held at a 136lb weight restriction, four pounds lighter than the accepted 10st benchmark for the division. But Serrano was slow to come in and set the scales after 9 am, agreed time or not. Make of that what you will.
