Eddie Hearn: Rose Volante will be Katie Taylor’s toughest test to date

WBA and IBF lightweight titleholder Katie Taylor returns to action on March 15, when she faces WBO titleholder Rose Volante in a unification fight from Philadelphia, streaming live on DAZN.

Promoter Eddie Hearn figures this to be the toughest test yet for the 32-year-old Irish star:

“It’s a massive fight. It’s another unification fight, it’s a chance for her to add the WBO championship to her mantelpiece. Rose Volante, the champion from Brazil, undefeated, very strong, very tough. By far the toughest fight of Katie Taylor’s career so far. If she wins this, she’s one belt away from being the undisputed lightweight champion of the world. This is a major, major moment for her career.”

Taylor (12-0, 5 KO) has dominated since turning pro in Nov. 2016, at this point really having only lost a few rounds here and there. This comes after it appeared her brilliant amateur career was finally slowing down some — she won gold at the 2012 Olympics, but lost a close fight in the quarterfinals in 2016 to Finland’s Mira Potkonen, and that came just a few months after she was beaten by France’s Estelle Mossely in the semifinals of the 2016 World Boxing Championships.

Volante (14-0, 8 KO) is unbeaten as a pro, too, but doesn’t have Taylor’s pedigree. The 36-year-old Brazilian won the then-vacant WBO belt in Dec. 2017, beating Argentina’s Brenda Karen Carabajal via majority decision. She’s made two defenses since, and this will be her first fight on U.S. soil, and just her second outside of Brazil.