Katie Taylor admits that she has no intention of starting any trash talk against Amanda Serrano in the build-up to their fight in April, largely because she doesn’t thinks she is any good at it. 

Taylor and Serrano appeared at a press conference at the top of the skyscraper known as “The Cheesegrater” financial district of the City of London on Monday to promoter their April 30 fight for Taylor’s undisputed world lightweight title at Madison Square Garden. 

The pair were respectful to each other, and Taylor says that is not likely to change. 

“We don’t trash-talk and I’m not going to start doing that now because I'm very, very bad at it,” Taylor said. “The relationship between us is very professional. 

“We are respectful so we’re looking forward to making history. We both believe we are going to win. 

“Maybe in my head I’ve thought about what I could say, but I’ve never tried it out.” 

It is not the first time a Taylor-Serrano fight has been spoken of. Back in 2018, after Taylor beat Serrano’s sister, Cindy, the match was said to be close, while in the summer of 2020 a deal was said to have been agreed, only for the Covid pandemic to intervene and an attempt to stage it as part of the opening Fight Camp behind closed doors. 

“I’m actually so glad that fight fell through a couple of years ago,” Taylor said. 

“The fight is bigger than it ever has been right now. It was going to be in his garden, then that fight fell through and I ended up fighting [Delfine] Persoon in the rematch. 

“Ever since I turned pro I had my eyes fixed on two opponents: one was Persoon and one was Amanda Serrano. I’ve wanted this fight for a long, long time. I’ve always wanted to be involved in the toughest fights, so this has been one I’ve wanted from the get-go.” 

The Irishwoman says that the headline fight and topping the bill at Madison Square Garden goes some way to fulfilling her ambitions when she first turned professional after the Rio Olympic Games. 

“When I first spoke to Eddie Hearn about turning professional, I told him back then that I wanted to bring women’s boxing to a place where the women were doing what they were doing in the UFC, which was the likes of Ronda Rousey and those kind of girls headlining shows and becoming the biggest names in the sport,” she said. “Here we are, headlining a huge bill at Madison Square Garden, the mecca of boxing. 

“I was obviously hoping and believing that it would happen, but I knew it would take a lot of hard work. We’ve definitely broken down a lot of barriers over the last few years and the fact that the pre-sale for this is the second highest in Madison Square Garden history says it all really. This fight is even more important than we realise. 

“There's history there, for sure. Obviously, she has an amazing record. She has done amazing things in the sport, and this has been dubbed as the biggest fight in women's boxing history and rightly so.” 

While Serrano lives in Brooklyn, just a 30-minute Subway journey from the Garden, she is not expecting Serrano to have all the support. 

“I think there will be a huge Irish crowd,” Taylor said. “The couple of times I boxed at Madison Square Garden, the Irish were very loud, and I saw flags all over the stadium. I’m expecting the same on April 30. It’s strange how both of us proudly represent small countries that punch way above their weight in the ring. 

“She’s obviously standing on the Puerto Rican heritage of the likes of Miguel Cotto and Tito Trinidad, me on the likes of Wayne McCullough, Barry McGuigan, Steve Collins and Carl Frampton, these kind of guys. We bring that heritage to a fight like this, and it will feel like we've got our whole nations behind us.” 

Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.