Serrano told 'just deal with it' after Taylor complaints ahead of historic event

Irish Daily Mirror

09-07-2025

The word legacy is being thrown around a lot this week in New York - but nobody is more deserving of the praise than Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano.
It's the third meeting between the pair this weekend, but the event is very different to the one they fought on a little over seven months ago.
While their rematch was the most watched women's sporting event in US history as 74million tuned in worldwide, it was the support act to the gimmick that was Jake Paul v Mike Tyson.
Now it headlines a historic all-female card at Madison Square Garden, which will set a Guinness World Record for the most world championship belts ever contested on a single fight card, with 17 on the line this Friday.
"I'm just so excited to be headlining such a huge, iconic moment like this," said Taylor after an open workout at the World Trade Centre as she was joined in the ring by young fans. Some showed their boxing skills, others their Irish dancing.
"I didn't think it was going to get any bigger than the last fight but here we are headlining an all-female card at such an iconic venue in Madison Square Garden," Taylor continued. "This is the stuff of dreams."
Having gone into the lion's den with very little Irish in attendance last November in Texas, Taylor will be backed by a huge Irish support this week.
She added: "This is absolutely insane. This is something I could only dream of as a kid, to be involved in nights like this. I don't take it for granted.
"It's going to be an epic atmosphere in MSG, all the Irish and Puerto Rican fans coming together. It's great to see so many Irish people here."
There was a large number of young girls in attendance at the workout event and it is inspiring the next generation that means the most to Taylor.
"This is why myself and Amanda are doing nights like this, to inspire the next generation. It's amazing to see so many young girls boxing," she said.
Serrano echoed those words, saying: "They can be inspired. They can say 'I want to headline Madison Square Garden, I want to make the sort of money that they're making'. That's what makes me happy.
"I don't want these girls to go through what we went through. The struggle was real. I was getting paid $50, $100 (per fight) so it was pretty sad.
"Obviously we're doing the same thing, fighting just as hard, but getting what we deserve."
There is a strong possibility that this could be Taylor's last ever fight and Jason Quigley says her impact on boxing and sport as a whole is immeasurable.
Quigley goes way back with Taylor, having trained alongside her with Team Ireland back in their amateur days.
"I don't know if there are any words really to put into context what she has done for the sport," the Donegal man said of his former teammate. "She's been an unbelievable ambassador for boxing, for sport, for Ireland and for women as a whole. She really, really has.
"She's changed the face of boxing for women. She is the reason women are able to box in the Olympics.
"She's been the reason why women's boxing has reached such a height in professional boxing.
"The thing about Katie, and I've said it time and time again, she is just as much a champion as a person outside the ring as she is inside the ring. Katie is such a lady, so well-grounded, such great manner, such great likeability.
"It's hard to get that. She's one in a million."
Amidst all the fanfare and niceties in the pre-fight build-up, Taylor and Serrano will go into the trenches in an all out war once again this Friday.
The Puerto Rican's team were furious with a clash of heads in the last fight that caused a bad cut above the seven-weight world champion's right eye.
The noise was so loud that Taylor was forced to state she was not a dirty fighter in the post-bout press conference.
Ahead of the trilogy, Serrano has demanded the exclusive use of legendary cutman Mike Bazzel, which has angered England's Ellie Scotney, trained by Shane McGuigan, who also wanted to have him in her corner.
Quigley says Serrano will have to suck up Taylor's style and try to nullify it when they step in the ring again.
"That's the way that Katie fights. She's a come forward fighter. She has her hands up on her face and she comes forward," he explained.
"She never intentionally drove the head in. She never intentionally put a headbutt in there. But yeah, she does come forward a lot with her head, but that's just her style.
"That's the way she is and it's nothing illegal in my eyes so Serrano is just going to have to deal with that and work a game plan around that."
Taylor is the outsider in the betting for the trilogy, despite being 2-0 up against her great rival, but Quigley expects her to come out on top again.
"They've been unbelievable fights and everybody keeps thinking Katie maybe has too much wear on the tyres now at this stage, but she keeps proving everybody wrong," he said.
"She's got a ferocious belief in herself. She's got a ferocious heart and discipline and work ethic that I just think that's what keeps pulling her through these fights.
"Of course, she's got all the skill in the world, all the talent as well, but sometimes in professional boxing, it comes down to how much do you want it and how much belief you have in yourself, how much grit and how much you can go into the trenches.
"I think Katie has that in bags full and I think that's going to prove dividends again for her. I believe that she comes out on top."