NEW YORK – Katie Taylor continues to pitch a shutout against Amanda Serrano.

Taylor, the boxing star from Bray, Ireland, moved to 3-0 in her rivalry against the New York-based Puerto Rican Serrano, defeating her by majority decision on Friday evening at Madison Square Garden. One judge scored the fight even at 95-95, while the other two had it 97-93, all in favor of Taylor, 25-1 (6 KOs), who retained her undisputed junior welterweight championship with the victory.

After two close, thrilling fights that divided opinions over who deserved the verdict, Taylor finally separated herself from her rival, utilizing the in-and-out style that first brought her gold medal success at the 2012 Olympics in London. On Friday, there was little of the drama of the first 20 rounds, during which it appeared that each fighter was emptying the sand from the other’s hourglass with each punch.

Instead, they boxed like two future Hall of Famers in the twilight of their careers, fighters looking for a simpler path to victory that diverted away from the hell of their first two meetings, in April 2022 and November 2024.

In the absence of blood and near knockdowns, the only mark of any significance on either boxer’s face was a slight scratch under Taylor’s right eye, which was barely worth the attention of cutman Mike Rodriguez.

After a tentative first round, in which neither fighter landed a punch of note, Taylor found her boxing groove in the second, keeping Serrano at bay with her lateral movement and jab, while Serrano struggled to keep Taylor pinned long enough to land one of her heavier punches. Taylor’s confidence began to rise in the third as she found the range with her double right hands – an effective attack against southpaws. Serrano appeared to be a step behind Taylor in the middle of the fight as Taylor dialed in with straight rights to the head and body in the fourth.

The key to victory, which had worked early, continued to work late: Taylor doubled her right hands and then check-hooked out to her left before Serrano could make her rival pay.

Taylor said afterwards that her fight strategy was to not allow Serrano, the heavier puncher of the two, to get her feet set to punch.

“I knew I was capable of a performance like that in the other two fights as well, but I just got caught up in a bit of a war,” said Taylor, 39, in the postfight press conference. 

“I’m so happy I was able to stay disciplined tonight and just outbox her. I made the fight a lot easier for myself by just keeping moving and not letting her feet get set.”

Taylor added a new wrinkle to her game plan in the later rounds, landing a counter hook when Serrano reached in with her left cross. Serrano continued to stalk, though she rarely found a stationary target to land on. Serrano never showed the urgency of a fighter who was down on the cards, even in the later rounds, though both fought the 10th as if they needed it to win.

Although the fight wasn’t the sort of thriller that the first two were, the event produced an electric atmosphere that brought together two of the most enthusiastic ethnic fan bases in New York boxing, while providing an unprecedented platform for an all-women’s boxing card on Netflix.

Most Valuable Promotions CEO Nakisa Bidarian, whose company promoted the event, announced at the post-fight press conference that she event drew a sold-out crowd of 19,721, a few hundred more than the 19,187 in attendance for their first fight in the same building three years earlier, for a gate of $2.63 million.

"Double the gate for Taylor-Serrano I, that's how far they've come," added Bidarian.

Like Taylor, Serrano too said the game plan was to avoid an all-out war, believing that she needed a different approach since being aggressive didn’t result in victory in the first two fights.

“It was all about working smarter, not harder. I tried to keep my distance, I tried not to go in there and fight with her, because apparently it didn’t work the first two fights, so we tried to stick with the long punches, the 1-2s, and I guess it wasn’t enough,” said Serrano, who had made a point to question the judging in the first two fights before their third meeting but didn’t commit to disagreeing with the decision in the immediate aftermath of Friday’s fight.

Taylor’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, who was conspicuously absent for fight week but who made the ring walk with her, declared that he believed Taylor was “the greatest female fighter of all time.” He said at the postfight press conference that, while Taylor may be coming to the end of her career, she was able to “roll back the years with her performance of skill and speed and boxing IQ.”

After three fights, Taylor and Serrano behaved not as rivals but as partners in history, thanking the other for their participation in a trilogy that was, for the most part, more competitive than the final record may suggest.

Although Taylor was non-committal about whether she would continue boxing after what may be the crowning victory of her career, she did know for certain that she didn’t want to stand opposite her most famous rival again.

“I just don’t want to fight Amanda Serrano again. She punches too hard,” said Taylor, who later added that she would reflect on her next move and make a decision down the line.

Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for BoxingScene.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at ryansongalia@gmail.com or on Twitter at @ryansongalia.