The 38-year-old had to dig deep in her clash with Serrano, but went on to go 2-0 up in the series, however, she may have to sacrifice one of her titles following the win
Irish boxing star Katie Taylor is at risk of losing one of her world titles following her recent razor-thin win over long-time rival Amanda Serrano.
The 38-year-old retained her world titles with a victory over a bloodied Serrano on the Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson undercard. While many within the boxing community thought Serrano did enough to win the contest, each of the three judges scored the fight to Taylor by a point as the Irish sensation retained her status as the undisputed super-lightweight champion.
Speaking after the fight, she said: “Well, it’s obviously hard to score the fight, but I knew it was an absolute slug fest in there, an absolute war. Thank God I won this fight, congratulations to Amanda. She’s a fantastic fighter. I think we agreed to 12 three-minute rounds in our next fight; the triple is on.”
As well as being the super-lightweight queen, Taylor is also the WBC lightweight champion, but is in danger of being forced to relinquish the gold strap. She hasn’t fought at 135lb since beating Karen Carvajal over two years ago. She then opted to move up to 140lb to take on Chantelle Cameron.
Caroline Dubois is currently the WBC’s interim lightweight champion and has been calling for her shot at the full championship belt for quite some time now. Recently, Taylor’s team were issued a message by WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman that a decision on the matter will soon be taken.
Sulaiman told Sky Sports: “It has been quite a long time since [Taylor] defended the lightweight Katie Taylor set to lose world title despite beating Amanda Serrano in rematch. Caroline Dubois is the Interim champion. Caroline Dubois got an Interim championship so she can make money, she can be a champion and look in the near future for something. Hopefully there will be a resolution. We’re going to let Katie Taylor take a very well deserved rest for a week then we’re going to contact them and see exactly what the plans are.”
A final decision is expected to be made at the WBC convention next month. Despite turning 38 in July, Taylor’s promoter – Eddie Hearn – has recently revealed that his client is eager to still compete at the top level. “How much have we talked about it over the years and, like if there was ever a time…I’ve actually said this before, to be fair,” Hearn told Off The Ball. “But we’re in November now, that gives you enough preparation for a summer event at Croke Park.
“We’ve just seen the biggest female fight of all time in front of the biggest audience of all time. It’s like, surely…and I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think it’s 100 per cent guaranteed that Katie Taylor will fight again. I’m sure she will, but it’s going to take something pretty special and unique.
“We had a long call with her last night with (her manager) Brian Peters and she was full of (enthusiasm). In the training room after (the fight), it kind of felt like if she was to turn around now and say, ‘that’s it for me’, I’d actually be extremely happy in a way that you could bow out on a night like that.
“But then she said, ‘there’s a few things, though, that I’d really like to do’. I said, ‘what’s that’, and she said, ‘Obviously I’d like to fight at Croke Park and I’d like to fight in Las Vegas. Then you start thinking, wow. I know there’s been a lot of interest from the Madison Square Garden guys because of the first Serrano fight to do something possibly in the Sphere in Las Vegas, which would be so iconic for her career – and Croke Park. But I just think if it’s Chantelle (Cameron) back at the 3Arena or it’s Amanda Serrano back at MSG, I’m not sure that’s necessarily going to really excite her in the same way that doing something different would.”
