Taylor again grinded out a very close decision against the tough and difficult Serrano.
After two all-time classics, the trilogy fight between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano failed to live up to the hype on Friday night. After 10 rounds of slow-paced action, Taylor took her third razor-thin decision over Serrano to retain the undisputed junior welterweight title.
Serrano, who had her most success in the first two fights by charging forward and throwing flurries of hard punches to force Taylor into a war, instead approached the third fight trying to fight from the outside. This resulted in a drastically lower punch output from both women compared to their previous meetings.
Nearly every round could have been scored either way, without a single round dominated by either woman, nor were there any of the dramatic exchanges that created the greatest rivalry in the history of women’s boxing in their first two meetings.
The punch stats were even on punhces landed, with Taylor landing 70 of 231 punches landed to 70 of 382 from Serrano. By comparison, Serrano landed Serrano 324 of 734 punches in the rematch to 217 of 529 from Taylor.
“I thought I obviously was boxing very smart and very well, she wasn’t catching me with much tonight,” Taylor said after her win. “It’s always a close fight between the two of us. … I was obviously planning to fight disciplined and smart. Thankfully, I was able to execute the gameplan very well. … I just have a ton of respect for Amanda, what a warrior.”
Serrano admitted to trying a different approach by dialing back the aggression on Friday night.
“Listen, I tried something different, it was all about fighting smarter, not harder,” Serrano said. “I was trying to keep my distance because [coming forward] didn’t work the first two fights.”
As for a potential fourth bout, Taylor shut the idea down.
“I don’t know [if I’ll fight again]. I’m not going to fight Amanda Serrano again,” Taylor said. “She punches too hard.”
CBS Sports will be with you throughout the entire way on Friday with the live results and highlights below.
Source :CBS
