Taylor beats Serrano for 3rd time, retains undisputed title
Katie Taylor defeated Amanda Serrano via majority decision to retain the undisputed women's junior welterweight championship in their trilogy bout Friday night at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Two judges scored the fight 97-93 in Taylor's favor, while the third had it a 95-95 draw.
Taylor is now 3-0 against Serrano after taking a split decision in their first fight in April 2022 and then a unanimous decision in their highly anticipated rematch last November.
"I thought I did enough," Taylor said in her postfight interview. "I thought I boxed very, very smart, very well. It's always a very, very close contest with myself and Amanda. Sometimes it's hard to tell from each round."
Taylor and Serrano headlined an all-women's card, which also featured Alycia Baumgardner defending the undisputed junior lightweight championship with a unanimous decision win over Jennifer Miranda and Shadasia Green upsetting Savannah Marshall to unify the WBO and IBF super middleweight titles.
It also marked the second boxing event to stream live on Netflix after the blockbuster Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight last November. Taylor-Serrano 2 was the co-main event of that card.
The third meeting between Taylor and Serrano was much more tactical than the first two matchups, which were epic, back-and-forth Fight of the Year candidates. This time, the two women's greats delivered a relatively low output, each landing 70 punches in the razor-thin contest. Taylor had a 57-49 edge in power shots, while Serrano topped the champion 21-13 in jabs.
Taylor said she stuck to a "disciplined and smart" approach in the trilogy bout.
"I was planning to do that the other two times, but it just didn't work out like that," Taylor said with a laugh. "I feel like I executed the game plan very well."
Taylor is now riding a three-fight winning streak and improved to a career 25-1 with the victory. The 39-year-old Irishwoman captured the undisputed junior welterweight title in November 2023.
Serrano, the unified featherweight champion, has lost two straight. The 36-year-old Puerto Rico native fell to 47-4-1 as a pro.