The eve of Katie Taylor v. Amanda Serrano part three

Two of this generation’s fiercest warriors face off Friday at Madison Square Garden for the undisputed junior welterweight championship. It’s the main event of a loaded all-women’s card, which will be broadcast on Netflix, featuring four more championship fades. 

The first two bouts of this trilogy, at 135 pounds then at 140, could have gone either way, yet Taylor won both on the cards with split and unanimous decisions.

They were enthralling displays of speed, courage, and pain, leaving an everlasting mark on witnesses. This time, Serrano is the betting favorite, and Taylor says the former needs this fight more. 

The challenger proposed 12 three-minute rounds, but it made no sense for Taylor to agree when extra time per sequence could put her in more danger of Serrano’s devastating connections. Instead, it will be like the last two: 10, two-minute rounds.

The first fight was on April 30, 2022. Serrano had Taylor backpedaling and engaging in the middle, bloodying her nose in the fifth round as she unleashed all over the ring. The Irish champion took cruel punishment as she wobbled and saved herself from a knockdown with a clinch and from another in round 10.

Yet Taylor’s left hooks and blazing combinations peppered Serrano’s face, even as her balance staggered while still dazed in round six. She eventually returned the favor, drawing crimson streaks from her Puerto Rican foe’s face.  

The crowd roared with approval each time they abandoned their defense, viciously lashing at one another. The sequel, 930 days later, featured the same action.

On Nov. 15, Serrano stunned Taylor with a bruising left hand at the end of round one. Later a gross cut above the former’s eye from an accidental head butt in round four left her blind to combinations and left hands. Her coach accused Taylor of fighting dirty, saying, “That’s all she does.” The referee even called out Taylor at the start of round six, saying, “Watch the holding, you’re better than that,” and later sanctioned her hammerhead tactics with a point deduction in the eighth.

Taylor subsequently won most of the exchanges over the next two minutes but the final round’s brutality, as both fighters went for the kill, was one for the ages. 

Serrano said the world saw what happened at the April presser, perhaps implying some underhanded business despite her insistence that her comments didn’t equate to robbery.

On Wednesday, Serrano was asked if she would do something differently. She said, “I’m going to use my head, but not the way it was used on me…” She added that she wants to fight smarter and insists she didn’t lose the last fight. 

Taylor and Serrano’s legacies are bound like the spine of a book to its pages. A third fight like the first two would cement this trilogy as one of history’s best. Taylor said the upcoming date is the “proudest moment of my career.” Piling on to what makes this event special is that it could be a wrap for either of them, as Taylor cemented herself as a legend of the amateur ranks with two division championships as a pro, and Serrano was the top dog across seven weight classes.

When they were brought together for a final face-off at the end of Wednesday’s presser, both stared coldly into the other’s eyes. This is the first time MSG will headline an all-women’s card, and hopefully, after Friday’s legendary clash, many more.