Taylor vs Carabajal full fight video highlights and results: Katie Taylor defends crown, hopes for Amanda Serrano rematch in 2023

Katie Taylor made another successful defense of her undisputed lightweight crown, beating Karen Elizabeth Carabajal by clear and unanimous decision today in London.

Judges scored the fight 98-92, 99-91, and 100-91 for Taylor, who improves to 22-0 (6 KO). Bad Left Hook unofficially scored the fight 100-90 for the Irish sporting legend.

Taylor, 36, was her usual self, but Carabajal (19-1, 2 KO) was plenty game, came in with a plan, did her best to execute it, gave a good accounting of herself, and was simply second-best through the fight against the top lightweight in the world, a pound-for-pound elite, and a genuine living legend of the sport.

In the form she was tonight, Carabajal would have beaten a lot of lightweights, but not Katie Taylor.

“She was obviously a tough, tough fighter. She had everything to gain here tonight, but I think I boxed very smart. She was very awkward,” Taylor said of her opponent. “22 fights, 22 wins, I’m still undisputed.”

“It’s been a brilliant six years,” Taylor said of her pro career, which started in the same venue in Nov. 2016.

Promoter Eddie Hearn said that Taylor would fight next in Ireland, as she has never fought as a pro in her home country, but has enjoyed wonderful traveling support everywhere she has fight.

The plan is for Dublin’s Croke Park, which can hold about 80,000 people, and they want to do the Amanda Serrano rematch there.

“Time won’t wait for Amanda Serrano. We hope it’s her, but it doesn’t matter who it is, it’s gonna be a big fight and it has to be next, it has to be Ireland,” Hearn said. “We’ve waited so long. We can create a night of boxing there that will never be forgotten, and no one deserves it more than Katie Taylor. No one.”

Alycia Baumgardner, who holds three belts at 130, and Chantelle Cameron, a titlist at 140, were also mentioned as potential opponents.

“I’m ready to step into the ring with anyone. I want the biggest tests and biggest challenges. I believe I’m the best in the world, and every time I step in here, I love to prove it,” Taylor said.

Taylor vs Carabajal highlights

Undercard highlights and results

• Maisey Rose PTS-4 Judit Hachbold: A pro debut for Rose, a London native and six-time amateur national champion, coming into the paid ranks as a flyweight. She won the referee’s card 40-36 here. Nothing much to it, but she has obvious skills and was too much for Hungary’s Hachbold (5-18, 1 KO), who did her job and scrapped away, but was outclassed.

• Kiko Martinez TKO-4 Jordan Gill: Gill was a slight betting favorite, but Martinez, now 36, has made a long, terrific career out of beating guys at this level, and he did it again. Frankly, after the first round, this was Martinez (44-11-2, 31 KO) dominating Gill (27-2-1, 8 KO) to win the European title at 126 and also put himself back in line for an IBF title shot, because this was an eliminator. Gill, 28, is a good fighter, but he just didn’t have the right answers for Martinez’s power and relentlessness, really just nothing he could do with the Spanish veteran, because he didn’t have the power to back him off nor the superior enough skill to box around him, and those two things are basically what it takes to beat Kiko Martinez, who is a genuine “gatekeeper” at the highest level of the gate. You can either beat him and are truly world class, or you can’t and aren’t. Despite this being an IBF eliminator, thus a fight for a shot at Josh Warrington (whom Martinez has lost to twice), Martinez says he actually wants Leigh Wood next. Eddie Hearn mentioned Mauricio Lara as another possible opponent.

• Johnny Fisher TKO-1 Dominik Musil: Think the ol’ “Romford Bull” may be about out of Czech heavyweights to beat up on, unless Pavel Sour is set to get a call for next year. Anyway, Fisher (7-0, 6 KO) dropped Musil (7-5, 5 KO) twice and then the referee stepped in on another batch of shots. Crowd was going wild because Fisher moves tickets. He’s a long, long way off of being a contender, but he’s exciting, I think you can see he keeps getting himself into better shape, and he has a fan base that love him. That’s a lot to work with. He also does get wild with his shots, but maybe not as wild as it seems, because he will still mix in body shots. Basically, he’s always looking to do damage. Eventually, he’ll meet opponents that can give some back, and then we’ll find out, but he’s great TV on these cards right now.

• Ellie Scotney UD-10 Mary Romero: Scotney (6-0, 0 KO) takes the European 122 lb title by scores of 96-94, 97-94, and 97-93, all of which I felt were fair. BLH’s unofficial card was also 97-93 for Scotney, who at 24 is progressing very nicely, and this is another strong, credible win for her. Romero (8-3, 2 KO) is really about as good and tough as it gets short of proper world title level, and this isn’t a division with one to three good fighters, there’s talent at 122. Scotney is improving and also not someone resting on her laurels, saying she wasn’t all that happy with her performance here. Romero, 37, made it rough and rugged, but it was Scotney who showed the better skills and landed the better, cleaner punches along the way. Eddie Hearn thinks Scotney is about ready, and says they’ll push for Scotney to become mandatory challenger for IBF titleholder Cherneka Johnson.

• Gary Cully TKO-1 Jaouad Belmehdi: Lasted about 35 seconds, even though they stressed about 10 times before the fight started that Belmehdi (16-1-3, 7 KO) was undefeated! Cully (15-0, 9 KO) was also a -1800 betting favorite so this sort of result isn’t actually unexpected, even though Belmehdi was undefeated! Basically, Cully landed one good left hand and that was it. Belmehdi was a mile out of his depth. Apart from this matchup being what it was, Cully’s a good, fun fighter, and could be a wild card in the loaded 135 lb division, and promoter Eddie Hearn believes he can fight for a world title in 2023. Now, that covers a lot of ground, he could mean a secondary WBA belt, he could mean an IBO belt, he could start taking the WBF seriously any day he wants to, but Andy Lee is also a big fan of Cully.