Katie Taylor’s first fight at Madison Square Garden was an all-action brawl that stands as the toughest fight of her professional career.
Her promoter hopes to bring her back there in April for what would be the biggest fight of her career to date. Eddie Hearn told IFL TV during an interview posted on YouTube recently that he wants to stage a Taylor-Amanda Serrano fight at “The World’s Most Famous Arena” in April.
Hearn hopes a showdown with Serrano marks the start of an ambitious 2020 for Taylor that would later feature a rematch with Delfine Persoon and fight against unbeaten, undisputed welterweight champion Cecilia Braekhus.
“I think Serrano has to be next, and I think it will be,” Hearn said. “I think that’ll come in April. I think that should be in New York. I think that could be the first all-female main event to headline at The Garden. It’s a monstrous fight. And that could be the year. And if that’s the year, no one could ever [complain] – I mean, even if you get two of those three [fights].
“Persoon is going to the Olympics, which is a bit of a gutter. But let her do her thing. And first things first – let’s lock in the Serrano fight. Everybody seems to want that fight. I think Amanda is doing an MMA fight in January. Let her do that, and let’s make this fight in April. It’s a wonderful fight.”
The 33-year-old Taylor (15-0, 6 KOs) topped Persoon (44-2, 18 KOs) by majority decision in their 10-round lightweight title unification fight on the Anthony Joshua-Andy Ruiz Jr. undercard June 1 at Madison Square Garden.
The 2012 Olympic gold medalist moved up to the junior welterweight division for her following fight, a 10-round, unanimous-decision victory over Christina Linartadou (12-2, 6 KOs) on November 2 in Manchester, England. Linartadou’s only previous loss came against Belgium’s Persoon, who also beat her by unanimous decision in a 10-rounder.
Brooklyn’s Serrano, meanwhile, has taken a break from boxing to face Dahianna Santana in a mixed martial arts match January 25 at Arena Coliseo in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Serrano (37-1-1, 27 KOs) wants to fight Taylor in her next boxing match.
She competed at the featherweight limit of 126 pounds in her last fight, a 10-round, unanimous-decision defeat of Heather Hardy on September 13 in New York, but Serrano has boxed within the junior welterweight division. Serrano, 31, has won world titles at junior bantamweight (115 pounds), bantamweight (118), junior featherweight (122), featherweight (126), junior lightweight (130), lightweight (135) and junior welterweight (140).
Matching Taylor against an opponent as accomplished as Serrano would be a huge step toward taking Taylor where Hearn believes she belongs.
“My aim for Katie Taylor is to establish her as one of the biggest stars in the sport,” Hearn said. “Forget female, forget male, just star of the sport, to give her the credibility, to get her the money that would groundbreaking within the sport, and what I wanna see her walk away from the sport with and to set up those career-defining fights. Amanda Serrano, Delfine Persoon, Cecilia Braekhus. That is the idea of a perfect 2020.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.