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Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano Press Conference
Years in the making, the biggest fight ever in women’s
boxing between the pound-for-pound #1 and #2 fighters of the
world is one that will not only make boxing history, but
women’s sports history. MSG has hosted thousands of fights
through its illustrious years, beginning more than a century
ago on July 17, 1882; now, 140 years later, this matchup
finally marks the very first time two female fighters are
headlining a combat sports event at 'The World’s Most Famous
Arena'.
Irish icon Taylor (20-0 6 KOs) puts all the Lightweight
belts on the line for the sixth time since winning them in
June 2019 in a war with Delfine Persoon and seeing off the
Belgian in a rematch in England before repelling the
challenges of Miriam Gutierrez, Natasha Jonas, Jennifer Han
and Firuza Sharipova – and there’s added spice to the fight
as Taylor holds a win over Amanda’s sister Cindy in Boston
back in October 2018.
Puerto Rican sensation Serrano (42-1-1 30 KOs) already has
an unrivalled legacy in the sport as a seven-weight World
champion. The Brooklyn based champion enters the momentous
bout in sparkling form after knocking out Daniela Bermudez
last March, dominating Yamileth Mercado in August and
overpowering Miriam Gutierrez in two separate cards
co-starring Jake Paul. Amanda was the 2021 Female Fighter of
the Year for DAZN, ESPN and WBC among others.
Taylor and Serrano came face-to-face at MSG today for the
first time since the fight was announced, and had the
following to say:
Katie Taylor – undisputed World Lightweight champion
“I’ve had my eyes on Amanda Serrano and this is a fight I’ve
been looking forward to for quite some time now.
“This is history right here and all of our hard work is
going to be paid off for at this time.
“I think that this fight is the most exciting fight in the
sport, not just female boxing. This really is the best fight
in boxing right now.
“We are both great champions, she has a great record and
she’s a great fighter. We have seen the likes of McCaskill
and others; but I want to be the best fighter.”
Amanda Serrano – seven-weight World champion
“No time is better than right now. Happy Women and Girls in
Sports Day … Women, we are changing the sport. I am honored
to share the ring with Katie Taylor.
“I have to thank my coach for not accepting the first couple
fights. He knew what I was worth and now we are working with
MVP.
“I don’t need to talk bad about any of my opponents. I do
all of my talking inside the ring.
“13 years, I’ve been professional and every other day I have
wanted to quit… never did I imagine making the money I have
today. I mean, headlining MSG, like what?”
Eddie Hearn - chairman, Matchroom Sport
“Welcome to the iconic Madison Square Garden here in New
York for the history making occasion, April 30 the
undisputed women’s lightweight world championship here from
the Mecca of boxing MSG. The first time in 140 years of
boxing and combat sport history, two females headline here.
“This is going to be not just the biggest female fights of
all time, but one of the biggest fights of all time. Katie
Taylor is a huge draw in Ireland and the UK, Amanda here in
the US, both women have headlined on major events around the
world.
“We expect to fill up the Garden completely, an unbelievable
undercard being planned for April 30 already, two-division
world champion Jessie Vargas will take on Liam Smith from
Liverpool. The undisputed super-middleweight world
championship between Crews-Dezurn and Cederroos also on the
card, as well as many more to come.
“Thank you to everyone for their support, this feels like an
iconic moment for the sport in boxing, a moment that a lot
of us have worked very hard towards. As Jake said earlier,
to those great fighters that have come before them, for now
we celebrate Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano who will make
history here at Madison Square Garden on April 30.”
Jake Paul - co-founder of Most Valuable Promotions,
professional boxer and content creator
“What an honor to be here at the historic Madison Square
Garden, I want to give a big thanks to Jim Dolan and the
entire MSG team for making history with us – for real.
“Women have been boxing since the early 1900’s but it wasn’t
until 1999 that they were able to compete professionally. 23
years later here we are with one of the biggest fights ever
headlined by two women at Madison Square Garden.
“Today is about Amanda and Katie, the two best female boxers
in the world right now, they deserve this stage, this
historic payday and they deserve to settle who is the pound
for pound best which is why I’m excited to see this fight.
“It’s also about Anne Wolf, Christine Martin, Leila Ali, Mia
St. John and so many other legendary boxers that helped lay
the foundations for the ladies to be sitting here today.
It’s about Clarissa Shields, Mikaela Mayer, Alycia
Baumgardner and other amazing professionals currently in the
sport. Most of all it’s about the future young women and
girls all around the world who will see April 30 as a moment
that made the impossible, possible, equality as it’s meant
to be.”
“It’s an honor to be here with Eddie Hearn, Matchroom
Boxing, DAZN, MSG, we’re grateful to Katie Taylor and here
team to commit to taking this fight. Of course, most of all
we’re proud to stand with Amanda Serrano, the superstar, a
woman who has dedicated her life to boxing. Now it’s time to
start showing the commitment she has made and show the world
how important women’s boxing is to people like bob Arum who
misspoke earlier this week. He’s going to eat his words
April 30 and see how impactful this fight, I’m excited to be
here and let’s make history.
“I’m a fight fan, I fell in love with boxing and I’m
passionate about boxing all the way around. When I met
Amanda Serrano and I heard her story and how hard she’s
worked, I see how hard she is trained, she’s getting paid
pennies on the dollar and being taken advantage of from
people in her career. She needed help and guidance, to be
put on a pedestal – she’s a superstar. I’m excited to be
promotor Paul and we might be sitting next to each other a
few more times in the future. I’ll always be involved in
this sport and pushing to make boxing a better place.”
Joe Markowski – EVP, DAZN
“For us it’s an absolutely perfect event, you’ve got two top
pound-for-pound women’s boxers in the world, for our UK and
Irish business this is a huge opportunity and of course in
the US as well. This is part of a really strong spring
schedule that hopefully working with Matchroom and Golden
Boy we’ll be able to add to in the coming weeks.”
“A huge opportunity for us, a lot of noise gets made about
this being a historic women’s boxing event, for us this just
makes great business sense. It’s a huge opportunity for the
sport and women’s sport more broadly to stop, acknowledge
and celebrate the progress that is being made in women’s
sport.”
“Yourself [Eddie] and Matchroom have been long-time
supporters of that, I think everything that Jake, Nakisa and
MVP are doing to back this is going to bring long overdue
eyeballs. We know from our broader global business outside
of boxing that when the media and industries around sport
gets behind women’s sport, eyeballs come, and they stay. The
quality of competition is akin to men’s sport in the vast
majority of cases.”
“We’re extremely excited about it, I think there’s a huge
opportunity for all of us up here and the people we work
with within our own businesses and our partners to use the
next two months to push this to become a moment in time and
a celebration – everyone at DAZN will be working towards
that.”
Joel Fisher - EVP, MSG Marquee Events
“The reception and reaction to the fight when it was
announced was incredible, everyone’s been really supportive,
so I want to thank everyone for that. There’s no better
place for this fight then Madison Square Garden, to make
history, this is a long overdue fight and is the Mecca of
boxing. This is where all the famous fighters, the biggest
fights in the world have taken place, this is history, we
are talking about history.”
“I’m sure that this fight between Amanda and Katie is going
to really be something else, something to behold, it’s not
only a great fight and history, the first time headlining
the Garden, it’s just a great fight that people in boxing
want to see. Forget about women just in general, this is
just a great fight and it’s going to be a tremendous night.”
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