Taylor vs. Serrano: The Skill and the Spectacle

Taylor vs. Serrano: The Skill and the Spectacle

By Andrew Rihn

This November, Mike Tyson returns to the prize ring to face Jake Paul. Streaming for free on Netflix, this inexplicable match-up looks to be one of the biggest sensations you never asked for and didn’t know you needed (and maybe you don’t). It is boxing geared toward the casual fan and has the crossover appeal to potentially pull more viewers than all the PPVs in 2024 combined.

For many boxing fans, however, Tyson-Paul is just a sideshow spectacle. The real main event belongs to Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano.

These two skilled champions first clashed on April 30, 2022. It was the first women’s bout to headline Madison Square Garden. The fight was electric, historic, and one of the best fights – male or female – of the year. It was the sort of contest that reminds fans that the shopworn adage “styles make fights” still cuts ice. From the opening bell, Amanda Serrano’s forward-moving aggression collided with Katie Taylor’s counterpunching combinations. By the fifth round, Serrano had more than earned her nickname “The Real Deal,” bloodying Taylor’s nose. The Irishwoman looked nearly out on her feet but remained standing steadfast as Serrano continued delivering high-level punishment through the middle rounds. Taylor recuperated as only top athletes can. Likely behind on points, The Bray Bomber found her second wind and went on to dominate the fight’s final stanzas. The two slugged it out for the full ten rounds, action-packed and explosive. In the end, Katie Taylor won by split decision.

It was exactly the kind of fight that begs for a rematch. The judges’ decision was not particularly controversial, but the fight was undeniably close. Taylor was the victor but looked the worst for wear. Her punches had been more accurate, but Serrano’s had done more damage. The bout was an appropriately updated 21st-century version of that classic boxing scenario, “the Cavalier versus the Caveman” (this time, make that Cavewoman).

After the fight, talks of a rematch came and went as whispers and rumours usually do. Neither fighter ruled it out, but both went about their business. Taylor faced Karen Carabajal before holding a pair of classic matches with Chantelle Cameron, losing the first and winning the second. Serrano stayed busier but with lesser opponents while advocating publicly for women’s fights to be held with three-minute rounds, the same as the men’s. To back up her advocacy, she fought Danila Ramos in 2023 in the first unified women’s title fight to go 12 three-minute rounds. They would have fought for an undisputed title, but when the WBC refused to sanction three-minute rounds for women, Serrano vacated their green belt.

Taylor-Serrano II will be fought at the typical two-minute rounds, reportedly Taylor’s choice. Although early rumours suggested the two might rematch in Ireland, the bout will be held at the AT&T stadium in Arlington, TX, as part of the MVP card headlined by the long-retired Mike Tyson and former YouTuber Jake Paul. This will be the first live combat sports event Netflix has offered. Given the enormity of their subscriber base and the almost superhuman appeal of Mike Tyson, Taylor-Serrano II could become the most-watched women’s fight in boxing history.

This won’t be the first time a historically important women’s fight has featured on a card headlined by Mike Tyson. In the mid-90s, Mike Tyson was rebuilding his post-prison career. Released in 1995, he quickly faced “Hurricane” Peter McNeeley and Buster Mathis Jr. A year later, in the spring of 1996, Tyson challenged Frank Bruno for his WBC belt at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The card featured boxing greats, Michael Carbajal and Bernard Hopkins, but the most consequential fight of the night turned out to be an unheralded match that opened the undercard. It featured two “girl” fighters, as they were dismissively referred to at the time. One was an Irishwoman, Diedre Gogarty. The other was a West Virginian known as “The Coal Miner’s Daughter,” Christy Martin.

Despite its nondescript status, this fight produced shockwaves that forever altered the sport’s landscape.

Women’s boxing in 1996 barely existed. Gogarty had moved to the United States to train because women’s boxing was outlawed in her native Ireland. Christy Martin had to start in Toughman-style brawls, fighting at literal county fairs. In her autobiography Fighting for Survival, Martin relates some of the indignities she faced as a female boxer in the late 80s and early 90s, such as having to use a janitor’s closet as a dressing room or being propositioned by men for fetish activity. Martin’s story, though, reiterates her seemingly inexhaustible well of personal strength (she went on to survive abuse, drug addiction, and even being shot and stabbed in an attempted murder). An iron attitude carried her through those difficult, early fights. “They might laugh at us on the way into the ring,” she writes, “but if we fought hard and did awesome damage, they’d cheer us on the way out.” Martin had the talent and the guts; what she needed was a break.

That break came on March 16, 1996. Martin had recently become the first female boxer ever signed by Don King, and he had matched Martin with Diedre Gogarty to appear on the Bruno-Tyson PPV card. She entered the Las Vegas ring that night with a record shown as 34-2-2 with a sensational 25 KOs. Diedre Gogarty’s record was 10-3-2 with an impressive 9 knockouts. (BoxRec maintains a slightly different record for both fighters, however). Scheduled for six rounds, it was clear from the match-up that King intended to start the card with a bang.

Over the course of six rounds, the two women proved themselves warriors, sustaining and delivering serious damage. Gogarty was dropped in the second round and responded ferociously by breaking Martin’s nose. Throughout the fight, Martin’s nose bled profusely, staining the satin uniforms of both fighters. After 12 hellacious minutes, it was the bloodied Christy Martin whose hand was finally raised. For the arena audience, as well as those watching the 1.1 million PPV buys at home, the needle had moved on women’s boxing.

After that night in 1996, Christy Martin was a star. She made the rounds on night-time talk shows. She appeared on the cover of Time magazine (“Belle of the Brawl”), guest-starred on Roseanne (“Pampered to a Pulp”), and was promised by Sports Illustrated that “If no one famous dies, you’ll be on the cover in a couple weeks.” No one famous did expire that week, and to this day, Martin remains the only female boxer to ever appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated (“The Lady is a Champ”).

Years later, in her autobiography, Martin writes with an appreciation of her shift from sideshow oddity to mainstream attraction. She recognizes she wasn’t the only one to make this transition and highlights other Toughman veterans who went on to have mainstream success: Mr. T and Butterbean. Martin, who became the premier female boxer of her day and has since been inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, has no qualms about keeping this company. Their success, she notes, “are the possibilities that exist only in a crazy place like boxing.”

To be a boxing fan is to never be more than a stone’s throw away from farce. At the same time, one is never far from championship greatness. Boxing holds space for the skill and the spectacle. Christy Martin’s career exemplifies the dual nature of this peculiar, outlandish sport, with its trajectory that took her from the sideshow to the championship spotlight. Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor are descendants of that latter legacy. Jake Paul is a descendant of the former.

On November 15, we have the opportunity to witness both legacies playing out in real time – a world championship fight and a sideshow attraction. Casual fans will be lured in by the spectacle of journeyman boxer Jake Paul, 27, facing former champion Mike Tyson, 58. That’s great – they are in for a thrill. When the resin dust settles, however, I don’t believe Tyson-Paul will warrant much post-fight dissection. The names on everyone’s lips will be Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano.

When they enter the ring in Texas, they enter as different women than they were two years ago. After unrivalled success and fame in women’s boxing, both Serrano and Taylor have experienced defeat and adversity. These women have sacrificed much for the sport they live and love. They have been pierced by grief and heartache few can understand, and they have braced their souls with fire and ice. Unsuspecting viewers will be shocked, I think, and deeply impressed when they witness not only the talent but the tenacity that Taylor and Serrano bring to their rematch.

On November 15, both hardcore boxing fans and casual observers should be able to delight in this one-two punch of an event. It is the sort of event only possible in the “crazy place” of boxing, an event that rewards entertainment with inspiration. On this night, we have a chance to appreciate boxing’s unusual duality in all its strange splendour.

Although headlined by the spectacle of Tyson-Paul, the night ultimately belongs to the skills of Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano.

Photo Credit: Matchroom Boxing