Taylor rematch would be ‘even bigger’, insist McCaskill team
JESSICA McCASKILL’S manager believes that a rematch between his fighter and Katie Taylor would be even bigger than their clash in England last December.
McCaskill claimed the WBC super-lightweight title in Chicago last weekend after beating Argentina’s Erica Farias on a unanimous decision to become the fire female boxer from the Windy City to claim a world title.
Taylor hammered Farias to secure her first World Elite title in the amateur ranks in New Delhi in 2006. The Bray woman also beat McCaskill on a unanimous decision at London’s York Hall just before last Christmas. McCaskill, however, asked a few questions of the unified IBF/WBA lightweight champion who was docked a point for holding.
McCaskill also touted a Taylor rematch after beating Farias, and Ricardo Ramos, who manages the new WBC champion, reckons that Taylor might eventually move up a limit.
“I think a rematch would be good, maybe even bigger than the last time. I do think Katie will come up in weight soon. We worked hard to get here but we have a ways to go,” he said.
Unbeaten Taylor (10-0-0) puts her IBF/WBA belts on the line against 36-year-old Puerto Rico-born Cindy Serrano (27-5-3) in Boston on Saturday week.
Tremendous
Serrano acknowledged that Taylor, who has yet to fight in Ireland, is a tremendous athlete but that she’s a great fighter herself.
“I know that they are underestimating me and believe that I am easy, but if they look at my record they can see that I have fought with bigger girls,” insisted the Brooklyn-based orthodox fighter.
Meanwhile, Tyson Fury has been cleared to fight for Deontay Wilder’s WBC title after finally enrolling on their Clean Boxing Program.
Undefeated Fury, 30, is currently in Big Bear, California as part of the training camp ahead of his December 1 showdown with bigpunching Wilder in Los Angeles.
However, the WBC threatened to withdraw their sanctioning of the fight, and therefore the belt, because Fury had still not enrolled in their anti-doping system.
The WBC insist that boxers must sign up to the so-called Clean Boxing Program, which they run alongside VADA, within three months of breaking into the top 15 of their world rankings.
But at the start of this week Fury, who returned to the WBC top 15 in early July, had still not completed the relevant paperwork meaning the governing body’s president Mauricio Sulaiman gave him a final seven days to get signed up.
Sulaiman, however, has now confirmed that Fury’s paperwork is complete.