Discover me a greater stylistic distinction than Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor. Serrano’s heavy, thudding fingers racing Taylor’s faster, sharper mitts to their facial targets. Taylor tip-toeing the perimeter of the ring, making an attempt to field; Serrano strolling her down, awaiting her opponent’s inevitable submission to the brawl. Taylor’s quicksilver mixtures. Serrano’s damaging single photographs. Every lady scoring their factors in these murderous, staccato two-minute salvos.
Who gained the spherical, the battle? Decide whichever type you want, boxing’s demented scoring system cries merrily.
Not one of the 20 rounds Taylor and Serrano have contested benefit a grievance. What may is that of the six judges for these two 50-50 fights, 83 per cent of them leaned Taylor’s approach. No sport does this just like the battle sport: two boxers shave a number of years off one another’s lives in an excellent bout, simply the way in which the followers prefer it, and one loses for no discernable cause.
Serrano’s profession deserves higher illustration. Since her skilled debut in 2009, she has ricocheted across the weight lessons like a very energetic pinball. Here’s a stretch of consecutive weights she made earlier than fights in a 30-month stretch, courtesy of BoxRec: 118, 121.75, 127.75, 138.5, 114.25 (!), 125.75, 131.5. Serrano’s file throughout this era? 7-0 (5 KOs).
Then there’s Serrano’s stature as a pioneer of contemporary girls’s boxing. She was one of many first two feminine fighters to field throughout 12 three-minute rounds, alongside Danila Ramos, who she beat. She pushed for her fights with Taylor to happen within the longer format too. Taylor turned her down.
Regrettably, the most important occasions virtually unilaterally sculpt mainstream discourse in regards to the fighters. Informal followers don’t know or care that Serrano established command over a gaudy vary of weight lessons. They know her because the fighter who misplaced twice to Katie Taylor – they could assume, justifiably, that she acquired screwed one or each instances. However that’s how they know her nonetheless. Gennadiy Golovkin’s help group is arranging a cushty chair and a contemporary drink for Serrano as we communicate.
All through the 20 hellish rounds she shared with Taylor, Serrano needed to negotiate with Taylor’s caffeinated hand velocity and footwork, plus a gaping minimize the scale of a 3rd eye within the rematch. However she additionally needed to take care of Taylor initiating a number of too many clinches, and placing her head down and pushing Serrano into the ropes an eyebrow-raising variety of instances. Already working inside smaller time home windows than she needed, every clinch and the accompanying five-second toll from the clock should have felt to Serrano like getting tooth pulled.
“Holding,” she mentioned helplessly to the referee within the rematch after Taylor initiated a collection of clinches within the fourth spherical. Holding is part of the game, for higher and worse, nevertheless it’s laborious to take when just one fighter repeatedly seeks to keep away from partaking and isn’t dinged for it on the scorecards.
“Hey, watch your holding,” referee Jon Schorle mentioned to Taylor earlier than the beginning of the sixth spherical. “You’re higher than that.” Pep talks, apparently, are the brand new level deductions. Finally, Schorle did take some extent from Taylor for headbutting; taking one other for holding would have made the battle a draw.
Regardless of her success all through the rivalry, Serrano has at all times been just a little starved of time.
With another minute within the murderous fifth spherical of their first battle, she might need gotten a stoppage. Identical goes for the primary spherical of the rematch, when she despatched Taylor staggering into the ropes with a giant left. Possibly the time she spent locked in clinches might have made a distinction in both battle. We’ll by no means know; she wasn’t given these seconds.
Now, Serrano is in want of extra time but once more. In one other boxing specialty, a two-fight collection has confirmed unable to disclose a superior fighter. So there have to be a trilogy. Katie Taylor, although, is 38 years outdated. She can be embroiled in one other rivalry with the one lady to formally beat her, Chantelle Cameron. Taylor might battle Cameron a 3rd time earlier than Serrano; Cameron was promised a trilogy and needed to wait as Taylor and Serrano went at it once more.
If Taylor goes in that path, she’ll be 39 after the battle and bookending camps and recoveries. And I’d say she would have the correct to retire by then, besides that she has already earned that proper about two dozen instances. Even when Taylor does wish to sq. up with Serrano as soon as extra, age might need stolen the elusive mix of qualities and types that electrified their first two fights by the point the third occurs.
I don’t assume Serrano, or any conceivable Taylor opponent, can knock Taylor out.
She is simply too slippery and savvy, even when dazed. As Serrano is aware of nicely, Taylor is extraordinarily troublesome to win a call towards, too. If outlanding Taylor by greater than 100 punches general within the rematch and touchdown extra energy punches in eight of the ten rounds wasn’t sufficient, it’s laborious to think about what will probably be. A 3rd battle may simply go the identical approach as the primary two – a potent, violent crowd-pleaser after which Taylor wins intently on the playing cards. One other 12 months of age doesn’t determine to endear her additional to 12 three-minute rounds.
Serrano herself fought within the lengthy format for the primary and solely time simply over a 12 months in the past, shortly after her thirty fifth birthday. Maybe girls’s boxing wasn’t fairly prepared for her.
What we’ve now’s a 2-0 file for Katie Taylor towards Amanda Serrano, which isn’t undeserved however does a horrible job of representing their nip-and-tuck rivalry. If these two fights can produce a win-loss complete that appears the identical as that of Haney-Kambosos, this sport is doing one thing catastrophically fallacious. Those that watched the fights ought to know that Serrano deserved higher, and till a trilogy bout, that’ll should be sufficient.
Owen Lewis is a former intern at Defector Media and writes and edits for BoxingScene. His beats are tennis, boxing, books, journey, and the rest that satisfies his meager consideration span. He’s on Bluesky.
