ARLINGTON, Texas – The rematch between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano was as bloody and bruising as the original.
The disputed decision — and the reaction to it — was about the same, too.
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Taylor retained her unanimous super lightweight championship in a razor-thin unanimous decision over Serrano on Friday night in a slugfest remarkably similar to their epic bout in New York two years ago.
Taylor was scored a 95-94 winner by all three judges, drawing boos from the crowd at the home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys before the co-main event of Jake Paul and Mike Tyson.
Taylor, the 38-year-old from Ireland, remained the undisputed champion in the super lightweight. It was the third victory since the first professional loss for Taylor (24-1, six knockouts).
Serrano, who kept punching despite getting a nasty cut over her right eye in the sixth round, was the crowd favorite much the same way she was in the disputed split decision at Madison Square Garden in 2022.
The cut appeared to come from a head-butt from Taylor, who was penalized a point for head-butting in the sixth round. Serrano said her first-ever cut came in a head-butt from Taylor in the first meeting, and she accused Taylor of doing it on purpose.
“I think 100% because she does it in every fight,” said Serrano, who winced herself when she finally got a chance to see the cut after the fight. “It is what it is. I’m a champion, no matter what.”
Asked about a third meeting, Serrano was interrupted by her trainer, Jordan Maldonado, who made more accusations about head-butting.
“If head-butting is not included and we get a fair referee, one that knows what he’s doing and is going to do what he has to do,” Maldonado said. “It was a lot of head-butting. Amanda Serrano has 50 fights. The first time she ever got cut was the first fight with Katie Taylor.”
Her eyes, cheeks and lips swollen in the postfight news conference, Taylor shrugged off the allegations of head-butting.
“I really don't care what's being said about the fight,” the 2012 Olympic champion said. “I'm 2-0 against Serrano.”
In a post on X after the fight, Serrano showed the stats that had her with 324-217 advantage in punches landed.
“I landed 107 more punches, she got a point deducted and I lost 95-94,” Serrano wrote, while adding the abbreviation of a crude phrase.
In the sold-out slugfest two years ago, they were the first women headlining a combat sports event at the storied New York venue. The 36-year-old Serrano, a seven-division champion, is 47-3-1 with 31 knockouts.
It might have started a little more slowly than the New York meeting, but things changed when Serrano, who is from Puerto Rico but lives in New York, sustained the nasty cut.
The injury forced the referee to call a timeout in the middle of the sixth round, and frequent closeups the rest of the fight drew gasps from the crowd in the first combat sports telecast from the streaming platform Netflix.
“Every time you get a cut, it bothers you,” Serrano said. “You’ve got blood in your eye. It hurts.”
Serrano never stopped punching, though, and she appeared to have Taylor teetering in the final seconds of the bout. Taylor leaned in on Serrano repeatedly, appearing to have trouble keeping herself up on her own. She already had been deducted a point for head-butting in the eighth round.
Taylor was fighting for the first time since avenging her only professional loss by beating Chantelle Cameron for the undisputed super lightweight title in a rematch in her home country a year ago.
The Taylor-Serrano fight in New York was more a celebration of women's boxing, despite the questions over the result. Serrano was a little more frustrated this time amid the questions about head-butting.
The Tyson-Paul fight didn't come close to matching the action of its final warmup act in the first live sporting event for the streaming platform Netflix, which had issues with the feed because of the high volume of traffic.
“I have my opinions about the fight,” said Eddie Hearn, Taylor's promoter. “It's done then. It's just my opinion. We saw an incredible event that had millions of eyeballs.”
Serrano was in trouble after the sixth round, the ring doctor asking if she could continue as the wound was treated. She said yes, and didn't show many signs of slowing down.
The pair traded flurries of punches most of the way, especially in the final round while knowing the decision would be close.
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The story corrects a previous version with Amanda Serrano having a cut over her right eye, not her left.
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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports