KATIE TAYLOR MADE the call to return to training to begin tentative preparations for what she had hoped would be a long-awaited clash with rival Amanda Serrano in September or October.
Just over a fortnight later, the undisputed lightweight world champion has probably already made peace with the fact that she won’t be receiving a call any time soon to tell her that seven-weight world champion Serrano has greenlit what would likely be the biggest women’s fight in history.
Puerto Rico’s ‘Real Deal’ [36-1-1], a resident of Brooklyn, remains opposed to the terms of the three-fight deal into which she entered with Eddie Hearn and Matchroom just last October; the third of those fights was due to be against Taylor but Serrano now wants more money for that fight than the sum to which was agreed.
As her co-promoter Lou DiBella put it on The Explainer podcast by TheJournal.ie: “Amanda wants to discuss, and has issues with, the numbers that have been discussed for her purse [to fight] Katie Taylor because she’s learned since we did the contract — which was almost a year ago at this point, or eight months ago — that the other people Katie has fought [since] have been better compensated than the money that’s available right now to pay Amanda.
“So, Amanda wants to have that discussion. But we’ve never said that we’re not fighting Katie in the third fight of that contract — that’s what’s in the contract.
Here’s the issue: you can’t force an athlete to get into the ring. I have an agreement, and under the agreement I can offer the fight, but I can’t force somebody’s participation.
Serrano maintains she never received that three-fight agreement in writing, but in March tweeted a document containing the terms of her first fight under the Matchroom banner — a January victory over Eva Voraberger which saw her paid $80,000 as she picked up the vacant WBO World super-flyweight title.
In the seven-and-a-bit months since, she is yet to complete the second fight of that Matchroom “offer”, as she describes it — all of which means any potential women’s superfight with Taylor will now be pushed back into the first half of next year.
That particular roadblock, however, may well be cleared in the autumn: as DiBella first mooted on The Explainer, it now appears the explosive southpaw will fight fellow Brooklynite Heather Hardy, the WBC World featherweight champion, in the autumn. Yahoo Sport’s Kevin Iole reported on Tuesday night that the announcement for said fight is imminent, with both camps now awaiting simply the confirmation of a date and venue from Matchroom.
Victory for Serrano is hardly a guarantee but would pave the way for Taylor-Serrano in the spring provided Hearn is willing to part with a fair few more thousand dollars than he had originally anticipated.
Taylor — one of the most active boxers, male or female, in the sport — will scarcely twiddle her thumbs in the interim, though.
With the Serrano fight on ice for the time being, The42 understands the Irishwoman’s team is exploring two very different options for a fight in late October or early November, with London the likely destination.
One is to make a mandatory defence of one of her four world titles — a fight which would keep at least one of the sanctioning bodies happy for the foreseeable future.
The other option is preferred and more adventurous, and would see World lightweight champion Taylor move up to light-welterweight to challenge Dominican-born Greek WBO 140-pound champion Christina Linardatou for her title.
Linardatou’s sole defeat came in a unanimous decision at the hands of recent Taylor opponent Delfine Persoon in a WBC world-title meeting in 2016, but the 31-year-old has since herself climbed up a division to take world honours.
But for Taylor — and more specifically her team who plot such routes for her — the appeal in a step up a division stems from more than merely the opportunity to become a two-weight world champion: the other two beltholders at light-welterweight are familiar faces Jessica McCaskill (WBC, WBA) and Victoria Bustos (IBF) — both of whom were outpointed by Taylor on her road to undisputed.
Until Taylor met her match in Persoon at Madison Square Garden, McCaskill had provided her with what was by a significant margin her stiffest test, their rough-and-tumble affair at London’s York Hall in December 2017 becoming the first-ever women’s bout to headline on Sky Sports.
McCaskill and her trainer-manager Rick Ramos retain a good relationship with Hearn and have fought on Matchroom USA shows since, so in theory, a card featuring Linardatou-Taylor could also include a unification showdown between McCaskill and Bustos, with the winners in turn squaring off for the undisputed World light-welterweight title further down the line.
And so, while it took Taylor 14 fights to become the unequivocal lightweight ruler, it’s not inconceivable that it might take only a further two for her to become a two-weight undisputed champion — a feat unprecedented in the history of women’s professional boxing.
A high-profile and lucrative Serrano bout could still be sandwiched in between, but a highly anticipated rematch with the aforementioned Persoon is subsequently unlikely to take place within the next 12 months — something which will doubtless draw ire from Belgium and the significant portion of boxing fans who understandably felt Persoon did enough to edge Taylor in their women’s fight-of-the-year contender last month.
Taylor has made no bones about the fact that she would like to effectively avenge her own victory, but The42 understands there is scope for their sequel to become the first-ever women’s fight to headline a Box Office event on Sky — an idea which would have been inconceivable when Taylor turned professional less than three years ago.
Further achievements such as a victory over seven-weight world champion Serrano, and/or an unprecedented second undisputed title, would make this a more viable option than it might be considered currently, hence the decision to sit on Taylor-Persoon II for now.
Persoon, still aggrieved at her contentious loss, may not buy into such a long game even if Hearn is more than willing to have her fight on Matchroom cards in the meantime — a move which would help build towards a landmark pay-per-view re-run of their June classic.
A word, finally, on Holly Holm — a prospective fight with whom tends to feature as a kind of pipe dream whenever Taylor’s path is discussed. It’s understood the former pound-for-pound boxing star-turned UFC champion is exploring the possibility of returning to the ring for the first time since 2013 with a big-money Taylor bout in mind.
Formative talks between the Irish and American camps have seen it suggested that ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’ first rediscover her bearings in the squared circle, likely before Taylor takes to the ring on a Matchroom card in the not-too-distant future, with a view to setting up a major crossover bout between the pair in 2020.
Holm, who transitioned toward MMA due to the relative pittance she earned in her 33-2-3(9KOs) boxing career, would likely now earn more money to face Taylor than she would should she decide to continue her successful but waning career in the Octagon.
A fight between the pair was first discussed by Holm in an interview with Irish-boxing.com in 2012, when she and London Olympic champion Taylor were widely considered the best professional and amateur female boxers on the planet respectively.
