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NEW YORK — In front of a sold-out crowd of 19,721 at Madison Square Garden, Katie Taylor completed her three-peat over Amanda Serrano with a majority-decision victory (95-95, 97-93, 97-94) early Saturday morning.
With the win, Taylor retained her undisputed super lightweight title in front of thousands of Irish fans who crossed the pond to see her.
The event, which promoters said was the first all-women’s card complete with a woman headlining, was a watershed moment in women’s boxing. Promoter Nakisa Bidarian it was only possible with the foundation Taylor has built for women’s boxing.
“She’s changed our life,” Bidarian said of Taylor. “We started in this business less than four years ago and we had a vision for women’s boxing and she’s the trailblazer that’s helped us achieve to be at this point today,”
MVP Dominates
Jake Paul’s promotion company, Most Valuable Promotions, took the spotlight going 4-1 in bouts with Serrano the only loss. The first three fights went to MVP fighters, with Ellie Scotney on the main card taking down Yamileth Mercado by unanimous decision for the super bantamweight world title.
MVP, which Paul co-founded with Bidarian in 2021, has put together multiple globally televised events across men’s and women’s boxing since its inception. Bidarian said the full card brought in $2.63 million in total ticket revenue, double the gate of the first matchup in April 2022.
“We made history and broke numbers. This is what MVP has done in less than four years of us two and just doing it really ourselves,” Paul said. “It’s just a testament to what we’re capable of, but it’s really the women at the end of the day and the rest of our fighters and them continuing to put on amazing performances.”
Irish Boxing Is Big Business
The Madison Square Garden crowd was packed with supporters of both Puerto Rico, backing Serrano, and Ireland, backing Taylor. Irish accents and “olé” chants were omnipresent Friday night.
Christopher and John, a pair of Irish expats who now live in Boston, told Front Office Sports they came to New York for the first and third legs of the trilogy.
The pair spent $1,500 for their party of four, and said they had many other friends fly across the Atlantic for the fight.
“These people are spending their hard-earned money to go over and support, it just means the world to me,” Taylor said. “Honestly, I can’t believe this is my life. I’m headlining at Madison Square Garden on an all-female card. Looking back on this journey, what an amazing life this is.”
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