BY BOXINGSCENE STAFF May 25, 2023 Source: Boxing Scene
Photo Source: Boxing Scene
Undisputed featherweight champion Amanda Serrano is not confident that a rematch with Katie Taylor will ever come off.
Last year, Serrano moved up to lightweight and lost a close ten round split decision to Taylor at New York's Madison Square Garden.
She was scheduled to face Taylor last weekend in Dublin, Ireland. The fight was called off when Serrano withdrew with a training injury.
In a move nobody expected, Taylor moved up to 140-pounds to challenge undisputed champion Chantelle Cameron.
Cameron was too good and too strong, retaining her belts with a solid ten round decision win. Serrano, who faces Heather Hardy in a rematch on August 5th, had expected to face Taylor by the end of the year.
However, Taylor is exercising an immediate rematch clause to face Cameron in the second half of the year.
Serrano does not like Taylor's chances in the second fight. “Definitely, I think [the loss to Cameron] did [kill any talk of our rematch]. Katie is a warrior. She’s a fighter. She’s a true fighter, and she’s going to want to get that back. I know that’s going to be on her mind, 100 percent. Losing hurts. It does. It sucks big time. And it being home must have hurt her a lot more. I’m just hoping she can mentally be ready for the rematch. I respect what Katie’s going to do, and that’s get the rematch," Serrano told The MMA Hour.
“Maybe [it will only be] delayed if she comes out on top, beating Cameron, which I don’t think that will happen. But if she does, then maybe the rematch with me will happen. I just hope that Katie does the right thing and she wins. I don’t think it’s a good fight [for Taylor]. Our rematch is definitely off the table [if Taylor loses]. I don’t know what Katie’s going to want to do after that. She’s going to want to retire or I don’t know. I know my career is going to continue.”
Serrano still feels strongly that she did enough to beat Taylor last year.
“I believe I won that fight, the team believes I won that fight – the world saw what happened,” Serrrano said. “It sucks. Losing and knowing that you won the fight and not getting it back, but like I said, I respect Katie Taylor. She got her first loss, and she wants that one back.
“I’ve been over it. Like I said, it definitely hurt, but I feel like I did everything right. I feel like I won, my team kept encouraging me, my island of Puerto Rico, they told me every second that I won that fight, so I was happy with just that. That I did what I had to do to showcase, I was going up two divisions. People don’t understand that. Katie went up one division, and look what happened. I went up two divisions. So I feel like I deserve the respect going out there and doing what I did to Katie. I felt like I hurt Katie multiple times in that fight, Cameron didn’t do that. There’s no regrets. I enjoyed that night with Katie Taylor, it was a great night for women’s boxing, and I moved on, I became undisputed champion where I belong, at featherweight.
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