Undisputed female lightweight champion Katie Taylor (21-0, 6 KOs) was fortunate to escape with a 10-round split decision against Amanda Serrano (42-2-2-1, 30 KOs) on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The scores were 97-93, 96-93 for Taylor, and 96-94 for Serrano. Boxing 247 had it for Serrano 98-92. Taylor was in survival mode from rounds six through ten after being badly hurt in the fifth.
Taylor was so badly hurt in the fifth round by Serrano, you can make a case that should have been a 10-8 round.
Fighting in front of a large crowd filled with her Irish fans, the 35-year-old Taylor was on the brink of being stopped in the fifth round by Serrano.
Taylor was staggered, bloody & battered during the fifth round, and in shaky legs as the round ended. How Taylor was able to make it out of the round without being stopped is anyone’s guess because she was literally getting beaten up by Serrano, who couldn’t miss.
After the fifth, Taylor moved nonstop in rounds six through nine, staying as far away from Serrano as possible. The movement it impossible for either fighter to land much of anything. When Serrano did catch up to Taylor, she was tied up in a clinch.
It was hard to make an argument that Taylor deserved to win rounds six, seven, eight, and nine because he was being 100% negative, and not trying to fight. She had entirely in the survivable mode to keep from getting knocked out after the fifth.
In the tenth, Taylor stopped moving and slugged with Serrano in the center of the ring. Serrano got the better of the action, and once again, she hurt Taylor.
Many American boxing fans felt that Serrano had done more than enough to deserve the victory after the contest. A lot of them think that with Taylor being the A-side, they felt it was a robbery.
Taylor’s promoter Eddie Hearn would do fans a huge solid if he were to set up a rematch with Serrano because the results of the fight left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths.
Taylor was too negative to give her more than two rounds in the fight, and it’s shocking that she was given the victory despite being beaten up and pretty much dominated by Serrano.
“I always come back and show the heart that I need to,” said Taylor at the post-fight press conference about her rallying after coming close to being stopped in the fifth round.
“I came into this fight knowing it was a career-defining fight, and I would have been disappointed if I wasn’t victorious.”
