Katie turned tide in vital later rounds
CHRISTY Martin was the original trailblazer for women’s boxing during the 1990s but, even during her storied career, the woman known as the ‘Coal Miner’s daughter’ never thought that she would see a night like Saturday in Madison Square Garden,
‘These two women sold out the Garden, they brought all these people here and they put on a hell of a show,’ Martin said in the bowels of the Garden late on Saturday night.
‘Everyone would have walked from this fight, saying I want to see these two women fight again. There will be a rematch and maybe a third fight,’ she said.
Martin was one of the observers who felt that Saturday’s all-time classic was a draw, rather than the split decision which was awarded to Katie Taylor.
‘You know when you are watching as a fan, you can see it differently to how the judges do, so it can be hard to see how it exactly goes. I know when the fight came to an end, I thought it was a draw.
‘I will go back, watch the fight over, turn the volume off and then will have a better opinion. But I thought it was a draw.’
In the scoring system, fighters are usually awarded a round 10-9 if a judge deems that they have won it. If there is a knockdown or a round is particularly one-sided, it can be scored 10-8 to a fighter.
Such was the dominance that Amanda Serrano displayed in the fifth round, many felt she should have won that by two clear points, and she did on one of the judge’s cards. However, overall, Taylor edged more of the rounds, which is why she got the split decision.
Of the opening four rounds, the defending champion was the more skilled and controlled boxer in at least three of them, meaning that she was 3-1 up on most scorecards before Serrano took over the fight in the fifth and sixth rounds.
And, as Taylor explained in her post-match press conference, her trainer Ross Enamait emphasised the importance of taking the closing rounds, often referred to as championship rounds in boxing.
‘I came back after the sixth and I guess that is what my corner was saying that I needed the championship rounds,’ Taylor said. ‘I did what I had to do. I showed the champion’s heart in there like I always do.
‘I think time and again I always show that champion’s heart when I need to. I dug deep when I needed to in the trenches and those are career-defining moments.’
The courage and skill displayed by Taylor and Serrano has elevated women’s boxing to a whole new level. As Serrano explained afterwards, the two warriors proved that people want to watch the sport and that it sells.
‘That has to be up there as the best [female bout],’ Martin said. ‘Every round had action, had something in it. At one point, Katie was hurt and I really thought that Serrano was going to stop her.
‘But, with her heart and talent, showing she is a true champion, Katie came back.’
Taylor’s survival was aided in the fifth round by the fact that women only box two-minute stanzas. It will again rear the debate about whether there should be threeminute rounds.
‘I think the two-minute rounds are great for women’s boxing.
‘You saw how exciting each and every round was. If it’s a threeminute round, it gets drawn out.
‘But those two women were in shape, they could have probably fought 10 three-minute rounds, that’s not the case all the time. And you see so much action in two minutes,’ Martin said.
Eddie Hearn believes that the two-minute round has been to the advantage of women’s boxing.
‘The one thing that has helped women’s boxing is the fast-paced nature of the fight and I don’t think you get the same pace with three minutes. ‘I do think you may see more stoppages, but I don’t think you’d see the same intensity.
‘I always felt that when we were introducing the audience to women’s boxing, two minutes worked better because it is fast-paced and exciting.
‘With that fight, would it have been better over three minutes? Maybe, maybe not?’
Ross Enamait, Taylor’s trainer, suggested the debate was for another time. ‘There are pros and cons to either, but I don’t know if now is the time to decide how long the fight should be – we just had 20 minutes of gruelling war.’
No. But it will be a topic of discussion before the inevitable rematch.