How the Katie Taylor vs Amanda Serrano rivalry started with Taylor-Cindy Serrano and took boxing to new heights

Icy stares finally caved into mutual nods of respect and smiles shared between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano.

They ended their final face-off and posed for pictures before Serrano gently placed her right hand on Taylor’s shoulder and the Irish sensation put her left hand on the Puerto Rican fighter’s hip. They embraced.

This scene following their public weigh-in Thursday ended a bustling fight week of events — all where Taylor and Serrano were heard and seen — toward their trilogy fight Friday night at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Jake Paul’s and Nakisa Bidarian’s Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) and Netflix had Taylor and Serrano launch their fight week by lighting the Empire State Building in a ceremony Tuesday morning before posing for pictures at its world-famous 86^th floor Observatory.

That afternoon giant inflatable versions of Taylor and Serrano, nearly touching the ceiling, served as the backdrop to their festive open workouts inside The Oculus at World Trade Center as spectators gathered on the floor and balconies overhead.

Wednesday, they did not mince words at the final fight press conference at The Theater at Madison Square Garden.

Spotted around MSG all week were promotional vans and bars donning Taylor-Serrano 3 ads with the marquee of the “Mecca of Boxing” constantly flashing reminders of the trilogy fight to the sea of humanity traversing the city.

So that embrace, as much as it was shrouded in deep reverence, also served as a sigh of relief, a woosah, that the promotional buildup had finally come to a close, leaving the boxers to do what they do best — fight.

The revelry of this week marked a far cry from how this Taylor-Serrano rivalry initially sparked, for it was originally forged not with Katie and Amanda, but Katie and Amanda’s older sister, Cindy Serrano.

Taylor fought and defeated Cindy Serrano by unanimous decision at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts back in October 2018. Taylor, now 39, was 32 at the time to Serrano's 35.

A former featherweight world titleholder in her own right, Cindy Serrano was outclassed by Taylor in what turned out to be Serrano's last fight. Thus, the Taylor-Serrano rivalry launched.

Even during the buildup to that Katie Taylor-Cindy Serrano fight, Taylor fielded questions about possibly fighting the more explosive younger Serrano sister in Amanda, planting the seeds of a rivalry that would grow to an unprecedented third fight, taking boxing to new heights.

In a Netflix promotional video, Jake Paul spoke about how the Serrano sisters would fight in “back alley gyms, making $1,000 here, $2,000 here” during a time where Amanda was a six-time world champion.

I remember visiting Serrano at The Dojo NYC martial arts gym in Ridgewood, Queens, New York back in October 2018 when she was so dejected with boxing and its severe gender wage gap that she was training to compete in MMA.

Serrano told me, as I was covering boxing for The Sporting News at the time: “It’s like a relationship. I give my all, I give my love and everything I have in me to the sport and I get nothing in return.”

Little did Serrano know her fortune in boxing was about to change, figuratively and literally.

Serrano wound up boxing on the undercard of Paul’s first fight back in January 2020 and the two hit it off. Paul and Bidarian launched MVP the next year and signed Serrano that September.

Roughly seven months later on April 30, 2022, Serrano and Taylor would become the first women boxers to headline and sell out Madison Square Garden in a scintillating fight that had the Irish superstar winning by split decision.

The instant Fight of the Year paved the way for the two to clash in a highly-anticipated rematch which served as the co-main event to Paul vs. Mike Tyson at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas — home turf of the Dallas Cowboys.

Once again, Taylor and Serrano delivered 10 electric two-minute rounds in a second Fight of the Year, this time resulting in a controversial unanimous decision for Taylor in a verdict which many critics and fans thought should have swung Serrano’s way. Nevertheless, the event reached over 60 million households via Netflix, only adding to the rivalry, each fighter’s growing star power and purse, and women’s boxing overall.

And that brings us to the doorstep of Taylor-Serrano 3 back at MSG tonight, marking a full circle.

In addition to the women vying for Taylor’s undisputed super lightweight world championship, Paul already told DAZN News earlier in the week that he believes the trilogy fight winner can lay claim to being the greatest women’s boxer of all time.

“I think so, I think that title and that crown is on the line and I think they are two of some of the greatest,” Paul said. “There are some other amazing names up there, Laila Ali, Christy Martin, but I think they are just doing things on a massive, massive level now and I think the winner of this fight will probably take the crown.”

So what started as Katie Taylor and Cindy Serrano sharing a ring nearly seven years ago continues in the form of Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano in a rivalry which manages to one-up itself with each fight.

For their third installment, Taylor and Serrano will headline a first all-women’s boxing card in MSG history. It is set to break the official Guinness World Records’ mark for the most world championship belts ever contested on a fight card, male or female, as 17 world titles will be on the line over five bouts.

Just the thought offers a pinch-me moment for Taylor who cannot fathom how this rivalry has blossomed.

“I would never have believed I think a few years ago if you told me I was going to be headlining a show, an all-female card, I think people would have laughed,” Taylor told DAZN News earlier this week. “So this is amazing that the sport is in a position where we’re headlining the all-female card.

“That’s an unbelievable position for me to be in,” she continued, “and the proudest moment of my career.”

The hug shared Thursday will turn to fists flying between Taylor and Serrano tonight, but they could smile in knowing their rivalry has reached transcending heights, elevating women’s boxing and the entire sport, period.

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