A women’s super fight between unified lightweight world titlist Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano, who has won world titles in six weight classes and currently holds a junior welterweight belt, is in the works.
Serrano and promoter Lou DiBella have agreed to a three-fight co-promotional deal with Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, who promotes Taylor, that will see Serrano fight on streaming service DAZN twice in 2019 before the deal would culminate with a showdown against Taylor late next year in one of the biggest women’s fights that can be made, a source with knowledge of the plans told ESPN on Friday night.
DiBella declined to comment, but he told ESPN that he and Hearn have been in talks about to co-promote Serrano. DiBella and junior lightweight world titleholder Tevin Farmer recently signed a similar co-promotional deal with Hearn to be featured on DAZN, the recently launched sports streaming platform that made an eight-year, $1 billion deal with Hearn to provide boxing content earlier this year and signed Canelo Alvarez to a record five-year, 11-fight, $365 million deal earlier this month.
According to the source, Serrano’s first fight under the agreement likely will take place in January, and she is expected to be on hand at Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday, where the deal will be announced at a late afternoon news conference Hearn is hosting to announce his Nov. 17 DAZN card headlined by heavyweight contender Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller. Later Saturday night, Hearn is promoting the Daniel Jacobs-Sergiy Derevyanchenko card at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden.
On Sept. 8, Serrano (35-1-1, 26 KOs), 30, of Brooklyn, New York, cruised to a one-sided decision win over Yamila Esther Reynoso to win a vacant junior welterweight belt on the Shawn Porter-Danny Garcia card at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Serrano broke her own women’s boxing record by collecting a world title in a sixth weight division that night.
Taylor (11-0, 5 KOs), 32, a 2012 Irish Olympic gold medalist and one of women’s boxing’s most popular fighters, would look to go 2-0 against the Serrano family.
On Oct. 20 at TD Garden in Boston — with countryman and UFC star Conor McGregor cheering her on — Taylor made her fourth title defense as easily outpointed Cindy Serrano, Amanda’s older sister, to retain her unified lightweight belts. Taylor won every round: 100-90 on all three scorecards.
Amanda Serrano was ringside for the fight and called Taylor out afterward. And when asked who he wanted to match Taylor with after that fight, Hearn responded, “Amanda will do, if she wants to go next. I think Katie needs the tests otherwise she’ll get bored, and she needs to challenge herself.”