Katie Taylor once again beat Amanda Serrano tonight in Arlington, Tex., retaining her undisputed super lightweight championship in another controversial decision.
All three judges scored the fight 95-94 for Taylor.
This was not quite the barnburner that their 2022 bout at Madison Square Garden was, but there was a lot of good action, and this time a lot of the controversy is going to come from the tactics of Taylor (24-1, 6 KO), who led with her head and held pretty frequently, resulting in a nasty cut on the eyelid of Serrano (47-3-1, 31 KO).
Taylor — who also had a cut on her own eyelid from the head clashes — had a point deducted in round eight, at a poiint when it might have actually been unfair to take it from her.
The Irish star said that she is open to a third fight with her rival, and that she would do the rule set that Serrano has championed, but did not have this evening.
“I think we’ll agree to 12, three-minute rounds for our next fight, the (trilogy) is on,” Taylor said. Tonight’s bout was held under typical women’s boxing rules of 10, two-minute rounds for a championship.
Asked if she felt Taylor’s headbutting was intentional, Serrano said that she felt it was, noting that Taylor does this “in every fight.”