When Katie Taylor defeated Amanda Serrano at Madison Square Garden two years ago in what was billed as the biggest women’s boxing match in history, the calls for a rematch started before the sweat and blood even had a chance to dry.
A new rivalry was born. Fans and pundits wanted more. But the trash talk that is synonymous with boxing was largely absent.
That was April 2022. On Friday night, Taylor and Serrano are finally set for a rematch on an even bigger stage — Netflix — and under even bigger headline names: Mike Tyson and Jake Paul.
And yet the trash talking has been scarce — at least as far as Taylor and Serrano are concerned.
“It’s definitely business, I respect all of my opponents,” Serrano, 36, said in a recent interview. “I respect any woman that does this sport, that goes into the ring and gets punched in the face. The sport isn’t easy.”
“We have mutual respect,” Taylor, 38, said, “because I know how much courage it takes to step into the ring.”
Fierce rivalries are a cornerstone of boxing. Mutual hatred builds a story line around a match that is maintained and encouraged by promoters and the media.
But Taylor and Serrano, who are vying for the lightweight title, are not typical boxers.
Both shy away from the spotlight, despite being swept into the prefight hype surrounding Tyson and Paul. Taylor and Serrano are each rumored to be in line for a seven-figure payday after what is expected to be the highest-paid women’s boxing fight in history, second only to their sellout 2022 fight at the Garden, which Taylor won in a split-decision and for which they each were paid about $1 million. (Promoters declined to discuss the purse for their rematch.)
Instead of creating a circus, Taylor and Serrano are relying on the quality of their skills to bring attention to their sport, as well as on financial support from Most Valuable Productions, Paul’s promotion company, which is putting on the fight at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, home to the Dallas Cowboys.
In many ways, Taylor and Serrano are adding legitimacy to the main event. Two of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, they will fight just before Paul, a bombastic child star-turned-social media influencer, faces off against Tyson, a 58-year-old former undisputed world champion.
Taylor, originally from Ireland, comes into the fight as the undisputed lightweight champion with a 23-1 record. Serrano, who grew up in Puerto Rico and Brooklyn, enters the ring with a 47-2-1 record and 31 knockouts.
“Taylor and Serrano are the real fight, but they’re not the main event,” said Malissa Smith, the author of “The Promise of Women’s Boxing.” When Taylor and Serrano fought the first time, Smith said, “it was billed as the best fighting, not the nasty rivalry.”
Serrano, like many women in boxing, started out with three- and low-four-digit paydays. Taylor disguised herself as a boy when she was younger to participate in amateur boxing events because girls were banned from competing.
Jaime Schultz, a professor of kinesiology at Penn State, said that, starting in the 2010s, women athletes embraced two seemingly conflicting ideas: that they can be ferocious rivals in the context of their sport while also promoting women’s sports as a whole.
“There’s a sort of sense of solidarity in women’s sports — if we’re going to make advancements, we’re in this together, whether we like each other or not,” Schultz said.
But the notion of a heated sporting rivalry between women runs against deeply gendered stereotypes, said Anne Tjonndal, a professor of sociology of sport at Nord University in Norway and a former lightweight boxing champion.
“Of course they are allowed to be rivals and compete, but they are expected to be much nicer about it,” Tjonndal said, adding that women “get more negative feedback.”
“It’s not as attractive, still, for women’s boxers to take on this kind of persona,” she said.
Instead, Tjonndal argued that the question of rivalry in women’s sports should be flipped: “Isn’t it a good thing that you have professional boxers who are making money and getting attention without playing on this kind of childish narrative?” she said.
But for women boxers, sometimes there isn’t a choice. Playing up a rivalry is part of the business for Claressa Shields, 29, a two-time Olympic gold medalist who has won several titles, including in the heavyweight division.
“I have to sell fights and get butts in seats and make it very entertaining,” she said. “But overall it’s just fun.”
When it comes time to promote a bout, she said, “Nobody wants to see a fight with two girls hugging and kissing at a press conference.”
Instead, she said: “It’s two girls who legit don’t like each other, have face-offs, talk trash and just from two opposite sides of the world. It just gives people intrigue for them to know there’s some history there. It always makes the fight bigger.”
Laila Ali, 46, a daughter of Muhammad Ali, took a similar approach during her fighting years. A rivalry is natural, she said, especially when your family’s legacy is on the line: One of her greatest rivals was Jacqui Frazier, whose father, the former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier, was defined by his epic rivalry with the elder Ali.
“It’s what makes sports fun, it’s what drives us as human beings,” Ali said, adding that she was never friendly with her opponents, including Jacqui Frazier. “That doesn’t work for me. I’m not going to be your friend because I’m trying to take your head off.”
For Ali, rivalry in women’s boxing is less wrapped up in societal pressures and more about resources. As more is invested in women’s boxing, more rivalries will follow, she said.
“That’s what really makes the rivalry,” she said. “When you have two people who are considered to be evenly matched, two different styles and put on a great show and everyone leaves like they both won, and they want to see it again — that’s what makes the rivalries great.”
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