AMERICAN BOXING PROMOTER Lou DiBella is eyeing a ‘mind-blowing’ all-women’s professional boxing card this spring, which will feature at least two — and as many as four — world title bouts between some of the leading talents in the female ranks.
The card is likely to take place in or around New York in March or April, and DiBella has informed BoxingScene that “meaningful discussions” have taken place with Stateside broadcaster Showtime with a view to airing the event on the premium cable and satellite network.
This would make it the first all-women’s boxing card ever to be televised on a major television network in America, but Showtime’s involvement along with the proposed date would preclude Katie Taylor from involvement; the Irish icon is set to fight in Philadelphia on the 16 March, live instead on the Eddie Hearn-affiliated DAZN.
A prospective Taylor foe in Irish-Brooklynite Heather Hardy is likely to figure in a career-biggest bout.
The undefeated ‘Heat’, promoted by DiBella, is set to finally face her fellow featherweight world champion Jelena Mrdjenovich in a unification scrap provided DiBella can get television on board.
Another potential unification to have been verbally agreed for the bill is WBA champion Alicia Napoleon against WBC beltholder Franchon Crews-Dezurn.
Taylor’s former opponent Jessica McCaskill is also in the mix, while The42 understands all-time female boxing great Layla McCarter is tentatively interested in facing the Chicago woman — now a world champion in her own right — with the intention of forcing a bout with Taylor later in the year.
DiBella told BoxingScene:
I’ve said for a long time that I was going to do an all-women’s card and I feel more strongly than ever that it’s way beyond its time. There needs to be a card of women, top to bottom, that’s representative of the sport.
“But you need a card that’s match-made to bring the best in women’s boxing to the public.”
The New York-based promoter also confirmed that he will look beyond the female fighters in his own stable in order to create a landmark card that will “blow people’s minds”.
Another one of his own crop, Amanda Serrano, is unlikely to feature having signed a broadcast deal with DAZN and a co-promotional deal with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom ahead of a women’s superfight with rival Katie Taylor in the autumn.
In the first outing of her three-fight deal with Hearn and DAZN on 18 January, Serrano will bid to win a world title in a seventh weight division when she faces Eva Voraberger for the vacant WBO World super-flyweight title on a Matchroom bill in The Theater at Madison Square Garden.
All-women’s fight cards have been a rarity in the United States, but the female fight game is in the midst of a renaissance which could see 2019 prove a make-or-break year in its development.
