Generally, this job is simply too simple. Choosing the Feminine Combat of the 12 months for 2024 is a type of instances, so that you shouldn’t be stunned that this award goes to November’s rematch between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano.
What ought to be shocking is that this 10-rounder was pretty much as good because it was. Keep in mind, when Taylor and Serrano met the primary time in 2022, it was not simply thought-about the perfect feminine battle of that yr, however of any yr. And with each combatants being on the unsuitable aspect of 35 after they rematched at AT&T Stadium, expectations had been muted for the return bout.
That’s normally the case for sequels, and regardless of a report crowd and viewing viewers on Netflix, most eyes had been seemingly drawn to the headliners, Jake Paul and Mike Tyson.
Taylor and Serrano weren’t involved with such issues, and after one other 10 rounds of watching the long run corridor of famers crash into one another repeatedly, it could be protected to say that whether or not going through one another in a soccer stadium or in a darkish alley at 3am within the morning, these two will at all times produce an exciting battle.
Name it an ideal conflict of kinds, their aggressive nature, or the rest, Taylor and Serrano are meant for one another. It’s the Ali-Frazier of feminine boxing, and if we’re fortunate we’ll get a 3rd battle someday in 2025.
However, for now, let’s have fun a rematch that not solely matched the motion and depth of their first bout, however might have surpassed it.
It was that good, however odds had been in opposition to Taylor repeating her first win after getting rocked late within the opening spherical. If Serrano had her means when it got here to the bout being contested with three-minute rounds, the battle may need ended within the first, however at two-minute rounds, Taylor received to battle one other day.
That made us the fortunate ones.
Taylor battled her means again within the battle, and whereas Serrano’s energy photographs had been doing their job, when a conflict of heads produced cuts on each fighters, the Puerto Rican received the worst of it, and abruptly there was a menace of the bout ending prematurely.
Now there was a brand new sense of urgency from each fighters. Taylor wished to shut the present, and Serrano refused to give up, as an alternative wading into the fray with much more depth. The group roared, a brand new viewers which will have by no means seen ladies’s boxing earlier than had been abruptly all-in on the game, and the fighters saved punching.
Down the stretch, the pair’s exchanges had been breathtaking, and whereas the cliché is “leaving all of it within the ring,” that’s what Taylor and Serrano did. When the ultimate bell sounded and the unanimous verdict was rendered for the satisfaction of Eire, there was controversy, with many believing Serrano deserved the decision, however should you watch the battle once more, there have been so many shut rounds that whether or not it was a win for both fighter or a draw, there shouldn’t have been any complaints. It was that shut and that good, and Taylor and Serrano did themselves and the game proud.
2024 Feminine Combat of the 12 months? There’s no controversy about this choice.
Mikaela Mayer WMD10 Sandy Ryan
Seniesa Estrada WUD10 Yokasta Valle
Ginny Fuchs WSD10 Adelaida Ruiz
