Minutes after exchanging punches during a losing battle of a final round, Katie Taylor And Amanda Cyrano Hugging each other and the moment.
With most of the sold-out crowd watching the first women’s boxing match still standing at the headline in Madison Square Garden, Serrano delivered a message.
“A woman can sell, and a woman can fight and put on a great show,” Serrano said.
All three were real on a historic night for women’s boxing.
Taylor remained the undisputed lightweight champion in a thrilling fight, edging out Serrano in a separate decision on Saturday.
In the same arena where Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali fought “The Battle of the Century” in 1971, Taylor and Cyrano made sure they were not soon forgotten at Madison Square Garden.
“People will definitely be talking about myself and Amanda Serrano for years and years to come,” Taylor said.
Both fighters were cut short because they fit in a lot of powerful exchanges during the two-minute rounds—one shorter than the men. In the end, Taylor did a little more to stay undefeated in front of a sold-out crowd of 19187 that seemed to stretch between Taylor’s Irish and Puerto Rican fans at Serrano.
When he finished, Taylor emerged with a score of 96-93 and 97-93 on two of the judges’ cards, while Serrano won 96-94 over the other.
The Associated Press scored 96-94 for Taylor.
Taylor wobbled (21-0) bloodied in the fifth round, but hung hard and found the scope in her right hand with an excellent counter punch.
Cyrano (42-2-1), the seven-time champion who climbed two weight divisions for this fight, lost for the first time since 2012.
A fight that the organizers described as the most important ever in women’s boxing could certainly take its place among the best, the two champions who left the fans standing screaming in ravings as they fired powerful punches that seemed to last almost the entire 10th round.
Taylor pulled it off by winning the last four rounds on both Guido Cavalieri and Glenn Feldman.
Taylor has defended her four titles for the sixth time, having been the undisputed champion at 135 pounds since winning Madison Square Garden in 2019 on the bottom card of Andy Ruiz’s victory over Anthony Joshua in the heavyweight title match.
The 2012 Olympic gold medalist was the main eventer this time around and fans seem to love every minute she spends.
“Tonight was definitely the best night of my career,” Taylor said, ahead of winning the gold medal match.
The organizers planned to seat around 10,000 but had to save more when all the seats were sold out, which eventually led to the arena being fully opened. The arena and the surrounding area looked like the Olympics, with fans carrying Puerto Rican and Irish flags, green visible throughout the arena and chants that erupted all night.
Cyrano, who lives in New York, danced around the ring with her arms raised after stepping in with Jake Paul, the former YouTube star who quickly raised her profile and payroll when he started promoting her and making her fight over his bottom cards.
“I was told to enjoy every minute of it and that’s what I did,” said Cyrano.
Maybe they will do it again. Both sides talked about a rematch, maybe next time in Ireland.
Southpaw Serrano continually advanced and found some holes left for her, but Taylor responded well and landed some good rights in the third – though she did take a good shot after he finished when the Fighters and Referee didn’t hear the bell above the audience and Serrano landed a punch.
Taylor came back and drove Cyrano into the corner again in the final seconds of Game 4 and the fight continued on a similar trajectory, with Cyrano throwing quick combos but Taylor tumbled in return to stop her momentum. .
The crowd cheered as they traded punches during a lengthy exchange at the fifth corner, but Cyrano overtook her and Taylor’s face was bloodied by the end of the round. But she immediately came back with some good work in the sixth.
The women’s middleweight division also now has the undisputed champion after Franchon Cruz-Dzorn was in the blood and defeated Elaine Cedrus of Sweden by unanimous decision. Crews-Dezurn (8-1) added the IBF and WBA titles to the two titles they already own by handing Cederroos (8-1) their first loss.
Next, former 154-pound champion Liam Smith (31-3-1 18 KOs) wore Jesse Vargas (29-4-2) before stopping him in the 10th round.
