Joe Frazier vs. Muhammad Ali. Evander Holyfield vs. Mike Tyson. Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury. Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano.
One among those fights is just not just like the others.
When Taylor and Serrano enter the ring on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, they’ll compete in what their promoters are billing as the most important fight in women’s boxing history.
It’s typically hyperbolic but with some standing. Taylor is the undisputed lightweight champion and each she and Serrano are considered amongst the very best fighters, pound for pound. It’s rare to see two female boxers of comparable talent competing in the identical ring, let alone at Madison Square Garden: This might be the primary time within the arena’s history that two women will headline a boxing event.
Each fighter is guaranteed at the very least $1 million, amongst the best purses in women’s boxing, a sport notoriously known for its low pay for girls.
“Come Saturday night, you’re going to see two of the very best go at it and I feel it’s only going to recover from here,” Serrano said Thursday.
Each fighters have faced tough challenges to search out themselves fighting in one among boxing’s most famed venues.
Serrano, 33, is the betting — and hometown — favorite. Born in Puerto Rico, Serrano grew up in Brooklyn, where she was introduced to boxing by her sister. She turned pro in 2009 and immediately began dominating multiple weight classes. But she did so without name recognition and with paydays measured in three- and low four-digit numbers.
By 2018, Serrano became a world champion in seven weight classes, a number only rivaled by Manny Pacquiao, and he or she enters Saturday’s fight 42-1-1 with 30 knockouts. Serrano, who has also competed in jujitsu, mixed martial arts and wrestling, is a southpaw known for leaving every little thing within the ring, putting her full body into jab after jab.
Taylor, 35, who grew up in Ireland, needed to disguise herself as a boy at a young age to be able to take part in amateur boxing because girls were banned from competing. The Irish authorities eventually reversed course, and in 2001, Taylor, then 15, won the country’s first official women’s boxing match. After a decorated amateur profession and a stint on the Irish national soccer team, Taylor helped bring women’s boxing to the Olympics and went on to win gold within the London Games in 2012.
Taylor has 4 major lightweight titles and has defended them repeatedly. Herquick in-and-out style has earned her a 20-0 record, including six knockouts.
“This isn’t just the very best female boxing match on the earth at once but probably the very best fight to see at once, male or female,” Taylor said at a news conference on Thursday. “The most effective part about this, the very best a part of my whole legacy, is to have the opportunity to encourage the subsequent generation. This Saturday night goes to encourage plenty of young girls.”
Like many combat sporting events, this bout has include its own circus. The likes of Billie Jean King, W.W.E. wrestlers and the actress Rosie Perez have helped put it up for sale. But not one of the star power has been more influential than Jake Paul, the YouTube star and content creator turned boxer who’s promoting the fight under his Most Helpful Promotions company. Serrano is his first client.
Paul, 25, has spent nearly all of his life attempting to get people’s attention. He’s made women’s boxing his next signal boost.
Success on Saturday night will are available two ways, Paul said, with a winner and a payday.
“So long as she wins then we’re comfortable, that’s the final result we’re on the lookout for,” he said of Serrano. “The cherry on top can be proving that two women can sell tons of of 1000’s of pay-per-views. Then we are able to go and get Amanda that payday, Katie can get that payday, and the opposite women in the game can receives a commission more.”
DAZN is selling the fight for a monthly subscription of $19.99 or an annual subscription of $99.99, and the fight can also be being sold by others as a stand-alone event, just like other pay-per-view events.
Paul says this fight is only the start.
“My goal is to get Amanda a $10 million fight before her profession is over, which is unheard-of,” Paul said. “Obviously the business needs to be there to have the opportunity to try this.”
Eddie Hearn, a longtime promoter with Matchroom Boxing and Taylor’s promoter, said the important thing to maintaining momentum after Saturday’s fight is to proceed to provide women the platform to placed on a show.
“Lots of broadcasters and industrial organizers think that they ought to be involved in women’s sport since it’s a box ticked. This has gone beyond that,” Hearn said. “We’re not selling out the Garden because persons are saying, ‘Oh, we should always go since it’s two women.’ They’re going since it’s a terrific fight. That’s the way you get sustainability.”
A little bit showmanship could go a great distance, too. At Thursday’s news conference, Paul bet Hearn $1 million that Serrano would win. Hearn shook on it, reluctantly. Paul said he would give the winnings to Serrano.
