Gavan Casey Reports from AT&T Stadium, Dallas

THE LUNATICS RAN the asylum all week in Dallas but sanity just about prevailed as Katie Taylor defeated Amanda Serrano for the second time in another extraordinary bout between them at Cowboys Stadium.

Taylor’s legacy has long been cemented but she extended it by defending her light-welterweight throne by the narrowest of margins in front of over 60,000 fans and a global streaming audience in the millions.

That a majority of those in attendance booed the decision — which went 95-94 in Taylor’s favour across the board — shouldn’t matter a jot. From the arena, this did not appear to be the injustice that the Netflix commentators supposedly made it out to be on the live broadcast.

Taylor dug deeper than ever before to pull off the slimmest of victories, while there could equally have been no complaints if Serrano had been adjudged the victor by the same score.

The utterly exhausted Taylor, practically unable to speak after surviving a final-round onslaught, professed that she “couldn’t care less” about the opinions of the crowd or the broadcast crew after having her hand raised at centre-ring.

She had almost been hard done by herself: referee John Schorle’s decision to deduct a point from the Irishwoman in the eighth round for what he deemed to be repeated use of her head looked extremely harsh from this writer’s vantage point.

That Schorle took a turn against Taylor, however, created a narrative among the crowd that she was responsible for the gaping cut above Serrano’s right eye which inhibited the Puerto Rican from the sixth round onwards.

Serrano also inflicted the heaviest damage throughout the bout, bookending it by rocking Taylor in the first and last rounds, both of which she likely won.

But in an all-out war which eclipsed their original meeting at Madison Square Garden for overall quality, Taylor too landed hurtful shots throughout. She did enough to win six of the 10 rounds. Serrano could absolutely make the case that she did the same.

It could have been decided by a coin flip but that the judges ultimately sided against the home promotional boxer should be considered the only real surprise about the verdict.

There were times throughout this classic sequel when the violence between them became wanton to the point that it threatened the structural integrity of the venue.

Texas has been a graveyard for Irish boxing dreams but Taylor, ever the pioneer, achieved her greatest glory with her back to the wall in the Lone Star State.

While Serrano again became only a bigger star in defeat, Taylor now stands alone in female boxing: peerless, preeminent, but seemingly not yet prepared to call it a day: she challenged Serrano to a third bout over 12, three-minute rounds during her post-fight interview.

The boxers were given a guard of honour by the Dallas Cowboys’ cheerleaders as they entered the gigantic arena, by which point most of the ticket-holders had already taken their seats.

Challenger Serrano walked first, the pathway from tunnel to ring illuminated in the colours of the Puerto Rican flag. She saluted the crowd to either side, blowing the odd kiss, beaming and bouncing her way to the ring.

The crowd equally greeted Taylor from their feet, with the reigning champion following a tricoloured route to the the squared circle.

The Bray woman took it at a far handier pace, wearing a more stern expression on her face, with her manager Brian Peters carrying a wardrobe’s worth of belts in her wake.

It was clearly a Serrano house when the boxers’ names were announced at centre-ring. Taylor didn’t so much as crack a smile between her ring-walk and when she touched gloves with the cheerier Serrano before the first bell.

She didn’t smile much after the final bell, either. She was barely able to muster a thought after visiting the shadow realm for the previous 20 minutes.

Round 1, or Round 11 of the rivalry, began with a couple of probing Taylor jabs and two right hands which found only Serrano’s shoulder.

Serrano made an early move but Taylor countered her on the swivel. The Irishwoman’s handspeed caused Serrano some early trouble before the Brooklynite replied with a left hook.

With 10 seconds remaining, boom: Serrano detonated a bomb. Her overhand left rocked Taylor back in her boots, with the champion lurching back onto the ropes.

There wasn’t enough time for Serrano to capitalise but there equally didn’t seem to be enough time for Taylor to recover properly during her sit-down ahead of the second.

Once again, the Bray woman proved any doubts futile. Taylor’s second round wasn’t far off a masterclass as she established an ideal range and peppered Serrano off either hand.

Taylor again produced the more eye-catching moments in the third, albeit Serrano was still finding success with her left hand. The Puerto Rican continued to stalk down the Irishwoman and apply pressure, which is as exhausting mentally as it is physically.

Either Taylor’s jaw was damaged from the earlier Serrano nuke or she was just flattened from the effort already, but her mouth hung open from about this point onwards.

There was a further explosion in the fourth. A blistering exchange at centre-ring saw Taylor abandon her pre-fight call for “discipline”. It never returned. The champion landed a couple of stingers upstairs but absorbed some thudding blows in the opposite direction, with the heavier-handed Serrano always likely to come out best in phonebooth exchanges.

Tearing up her gameplan this early struck as an unwise course of action for Taylor, but she may have stolen the fourth round with a sublime finish as she pinged Serrano around the corner of her guard from either side.

The fifth was quieter, with the only meaningful action coming in the final 30 seconds. Taylor, clearly feeling the heat as Serrano continued to march forward, did her best to spoil in the clinch.

When some boxing broke out in the final quarter of the round, it was once more Taylor who found the greater success — but she was warned for holding by referee Jon Schorle who told her “you’re better than that” at the bell. It was likely a Serrano round.

There were howls from the crowd during the sixth as an accidental clash of heads between the boxers drastically worsened an existing cut over Serrano’s right eye.

Schorle was satisfied that there had been no intention on either boxer’s part, but Serrano was checked by the ringside doctor and 60-odd-thousand fans feared the worst as the extent of the gash appeared on the Jumbotron.

Somehow, Serrano was permitted to continue with her eyelid hanging off, and with that, she and Taylor threw it back to Madison Square Garden 2022.

Either boxer could have shaded the battle of the sixth and the war continued apace into seven.

An electrifying two minutes saw Taylor and Serrano abandon not only defence but all reason. They tore into each other at centre-ring, combining to land 89 punches of 170 thrown. The majority of those were landed by Serrano, who was unleashing everything from her arsenal in an effort to break Taylor’s spirit.

That proved futile as Taylor managed to snap Serrano’s head back with a left hook and right hand in quick succession.

‘The Real Deal’ caught a break which ultimately almost flipped the fight when Taylor was deducted a point in Round 8, referee Schorle pinning the fourth major head clash on the Irishwoman. It looked like guesswork by the man in the middle as it was indistinguishable from the others.

Taylor still won the round, but it would be chalked in as a 9-9 at best.

The ninth became the point at which the fight began to even eclipse the Madison Square Garden original. Taylor, biting down on her gumshield, lashed Serrano to the head, bouncing it backwards on several occasions and doing her best to target with her left hook the gaping cut which was obscuring Serrano’s vision on her right-hand side.

Serrano dished plenty back, too, and heading into the 10th and final round, she was still in with more than a shout.

The crowd rose to its feet in anticipation of bedlam. The noise was deafening, albeit the boxers’ ears would have been ringing to the point of white noise anyway.

Serrano came out possessed. The Puerto Rican piled on the pressure, laying it into Taylor’s body and finding success with power shots to the head.

Taylor gave some back but approaching the home stretch, she could barely raise her arms in defence, not to mind attack, as she increasingly began to block punches with her face.

What she was able to conjure in the final 15 seconds was unbelievable even for Katie Taylor. The champion detonated a right hand over the top which stopped Serrano in her tracks. Sensing a slight hesitation in the Brooklynite, Taylor hit the pedal for home, unloading a further fusillade and backing Serrano into the corner.

It was a breathtaking finish to what might have been a Serrano round in any case. Still, it felt possible that Taylor had done just enough over the previous nine to get the verdict — if indeed it was to be fair: she was, after all, boxing on enemy soil from a promotional standpoint.

Much to the disgust of Serrano and her trainer-manager Jordan Maldonado, to the anger of 60-odd-thousand Americans, and to the relief of late-night viewers back across the Atlantic, the champion remained the champion. Her exhausted arm was raised.

Taylor has not yet tired of hearing the words, ‘And still…’

The main event, meanwhile, went about as expected, with Jake Paul outpointing the 58-year-old Mike Tyson in a non-contest that was frequently booed by those who paid to watch it.