Taylor has pair of titles on line for bout with Serrano

KATIE TAYLOR will put her WBA and IBF World lightweight belts on the line in Boston’s TD Garden Arena on October 20 against American Cindy Serrano, the former WBO World featherweight champion.

The 36-year old Puerto Rican born, Brooklynbased boxer is an older sister of five-weight world champion Amanda Serrano, who will almost certainly be a future opponent for Taylor (right).

While Amanda (29) will bid for a sixth world title next month, older sister Cindy has been relatively inactive in the boxing ring of late.

Having won the WBO’s version of the world featherweight title in December 2016 on a majority decision, she defended the belt only once, five months later, and is no longer recognised by the WBO as their champion in the 126lb division.

Her most recent fight was in October of last year in the Brooklyn Center in New York, when she secured a split decision win over Hungarian Edina Kiss in an eight round super featherweight contest. Cindy will be moving up another weight division to challenge the Bray pugilist, but has previously fought in the lightweight division, winning a Universal Boxing Federation belt in the 135lb category in 2014.

The American holds the edge in experience. She has won 27 of her 35 fights – ten via knock-out – lost five and drawn three. She has never been stopped in her pro career, dating back to 2003.

The contest will be shown live in the United States on Matchroom’s new streaming TV network DAZN but Sky Sports will continue to screen Taylor’s fights on this side of the Atlantic.

2012 Olympic champion Taylor has also been shortlisted for the Overseas Fighter of the Year award by the British Boxing Board of Control. The winner will be announced next month.