NEW YORK — A wave of relief swept around the curved walls of Madison Square Garden. Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano embraced center ring, jaws agape, barely mustering the energy to raise their right hands in presumptuous celebration.
Taylor, 39, and Serrano, 36, had just shared the latest of 30 professional boxing rounds together. Totaling an hour locked in competitive combat, their names have now become synonymous with each other in boxing’s rich annals. But despite not yet receiving the official scorecards from the three ringside judges, there was an undeniable feeling of satisfaction Friday night inside the Garden that their story had reached its final page.
The buildup to their trilogy meeting followed the pattern we’ve become accustomed to. New York City’s sun-soaked streets were pounded by traveling Irish and Puerto Ricans throughout Friday afternoon. The Irish tricolor and banderas de Puerto Rico were used with versatility; blankets, shawls, belts and bandanas — just as long as allegiances were discerned amid the chaos of Midtown Manhattan.
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The surfeit of Irish bars were well-populated and New York’s infamous bodegas saw lines disappear around street corners, filled with vocal fight fans securing last-minute necessities. There may have been hundreds of events taking place in the city on Friday night, but Taylor and Serrano’s armies of loyal supporters made heads of passersby turn — it was the party that everyone wanted to gatecrash, but the sold out ‘Mecca’ of boxing soon became invite-only.
Inside the Garden, the prelims felt like strictly business. Tamm Thibeault, Cherneka Johnson, Chantelle Cameron and Ramla Ali all earned victories — in the case of the latter, more controversially than others — and like rowdy teenagers filing into a club, diverse groups of fans slowly filled the arena, chests puffed, peacocking with adrenaline.
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The Puerto Ricans were first. Flashes of red, white and blue began filling the 20,000-plus seats as the Irish doubled down on the notion of arriving fashionably late, ordering one for the road in neighboring bars. Flashes of Serrano’s entrance on the big screen were greeted by ear-splitting cheers and they reverberated around the venue in spurts like the smashing of a glass sheet.
Ellie Scotney wowed those in attendance with a punch-perfect win over the teak-tough Yamileth Mercado — beautifully dedicating her victory, as promised, to her late friend Georgia O’Connor. Savannah Marshall was left upset by the impressive new unified super middleweight world champion Shadasia Green, and Alycia Baumgardner was made to work hard by Jennifer Miranda to successfully defend her super featherweight crowns.
There was excitement during the main card, and home favorites Green and Baumgardner did raise the decibel levels on occasion, but everything on the undercard felt — perhaps more so than usual — like a precursor to the main event.
Following emotional renditions of both Ireland and Puerto Rico’s national anthems, ring walks commenced at 11:30 local time. Serrano went first, accompanied by the New York Knicks’ City Dancers. She bounced and gyrated en route to the ring in what was to be her 52nd professional outing. Loosened by the half-hour of Bad Bunny hits that had preceded the main event, the Puerto Rican contingent burst into a carnival of dance.
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Taylor is the yin to the yang of Serrano in many facets — none more so than the calm that washed over the Irish fighter’s face as she followed to the ring. Taylor’s wide yet kind eyes have the ability to drag you into her emotional state, and she had the entire Garden in the palm of her hand. She bent through the ropes accompanied by her team and Matchroom Boxing chairman Eddie Hearn, and after further introductions, the fighters touched gloves.
It’s impossible to put the genie back in the bottle, and as Taylor and Serrano feinted and jockeyed through an underwhelming opening couple of rounds, this idiom became reality. Both fighters seemed to realize that as soon as they started trading — like they had done for a majority of the previous 20 rounds — then there was no going back.
Perhaps their combined age of 75 played a factor. You can get old overnight in boxing, and while that wasn’t necessarily the case here, it might well have been playing on their sharp and experienced minds..
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Taylor went back to basics. She boxed beautifully off the back foot in homage to her amateur successes and Serrano became frustrated as she stalked and walked forward, unable to land anything of significance against her foe. Taylor’s left hook was as sharp as we’ve seen throughout this trilogy and Serrano never stopped in her pursuit of the Bray fighter, gaining the odd success with clean right hands.
As they do in 10 two-minute stanzas, the rounds flew by. It wasn’t the barnburner we’d become accustomed to from these two icons of the sport, but both women emptied their tanks in the last round as if to remind us all why we were still watching through our fingers.
The partisan crowd united in one final rendition of “ole, ole, ole, ole” and smiles plastered across every face in attendance — it’s perhaps trite to say, but the winner of this trilogy fight felt less important than the previous two. And although Taylor and Serrano might not agree, the post-fight perception was of a celebration of what has developed into one of sport’s greatest modern rivalries.
Taylor’s hand was raised for a third time in three fights, thanks to scorecards of 97-93, 97-93 and 95-95, and half of the Garden erupted in hearty jubilation. The walls lit in vibrant green and orange and Jay-Z’s “Encore” rang around the arena. Eyebrows raised across the media section at the lyric, “Do you want more?”
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Hearn — crowned with an Irish bucket hat — introduced Katie Taylor at the post-fight press conference as the “greatest female fighter of all time,” and you’d do well to find many in attendance that would disagree with that notion. Flanked by her trainer Ross Enamait and her five championship titles, Taylor spoke with characteristic calmness and clarity — what she is able to exhibit in the ring in terms of war is always outdone by her peace on this side of the ropes.
“We created history,” she smiled, wearing a dark lesion under her right eye. “These are the sort of opportunities people didn’t think were even possible a few years ago.”
Such is professional sport that thoughts will immediately turn to what’s next for the 39-year-old. Asked that question, Taylor took a deep breath before countering with what can only be described as a stock answer. As is her right. “I’m just going to enjoy this victory, sit back and reflect,” she said. “But I felt fresh in there. I felt sharp.”
Whatever is next for both Tayor and Serrano will soon become apparent — but it shouldn’t be each other. But for women’s boxing? In the wake of their history-making trilogy? Well, it has the potential to be even bigger.
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