Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano met again in the featured undercard bout of Friday’s main event between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul. Just like their first meeting, arguably the greatest women’s boxing fight of all-time, Taylor escaped with a controversial decision victory, and with the benefit of several headbutts that opened a nasty cut over Serrano’s eye.
Serrano landed a massive left hook late in the first round and had Taylor badly hurt. Taylor was saved by the bell, a benefit of most women’s fights being contested with two-minute, rather than three-minute, rounds. After the bell, Taylor’s corner implored her to make the fight a boxing match rather than the kind of fight Serrano preferred.
Taylor was happy to try and slow Serrano’s approach by doing just that, moving around the ring and looking for opportunities to unleash quick combinations. It wasn’t Taylor’s punches that had the biggest effect on the fight, however, it was her skull.
Taylor connected with a hard headbutt in Round 4, opening a cut above Serrano’s right eye. Taylor’s head would connect with the same area several times, opening the cut wider and forcing the referee to have the doctor verify that Serrano was alright to continue fighting.
CBS Sports will also have live coverage of the fight with round-by-round scoring and blow-by-blow updates to keep you up to date throughout the night.
Despite the injury, which was producing a steady stream of blood, Serrano continued to walk forward, stalking Taylor and forcing her into heavy exchanges.
By Round 7, the exchanges were coming fast and furious with both women having success at various moments, reminiscent of their first meeting.
Taylor would land another headbutt in Round 8, drawing another warning from the referee, but Serrano fought on. Another headbutt landed before the round closed and the referee stepped in to take a point from Taylor.
Round 10 wasn’t much different than the rest of the fight, with both women unloading everything until the final bell.
After the conclusion of 10 rounds, all three judges saw the fight 95-94 for Taylor as she took her second consecutive controversial decision over Serrano.
The crowd booed as Taylor was interviewed following the decision.
“It’s obviously very hard but I knew it was an absolute slugfest in there. An absolute war,” Taylor said. “We trained so hard … any punch can change a fight in boxing, she’s a hard puncher and absolute warrior. I don’t care if the commentary team or crowd disagree with the result.”
Serrano took the loss with grace but was not hesitant in claiming Taylor fought dirty — and has throughout her career.
“I know the judges were going to be a little bit shady,” Serrano said. “I went up three divisions and dared to be great tonight. I’m the featherweight champion of the world and want to be great. I’m a featherweight, man. Every time you get a cut, it bothers you. Not only my fight, she did it with Chantelle Cameron. I think 100% [they were intentional], she does it every fight. My first ever cut was against Katie Taylor.”
In the main event, the 27-year-old Jake Paul boxed circles around the 58-year-old Mike Tyson and seemed to carry him to the finish line instead of go for the finish. While there was tons of intrigue into what Tyson would look like at this advanced age against a relative novice in comparison, the fight was never really close to delivering on fan expectations. That was thanks in part to the larger gloves and shorter rounds. In the end, Paul earned a unanimous decision by a wide margin on all three scorecards.
