Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano are set to headline Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, the first female main event in the history of the historic venue, and both of them expressed their respect for one another and their great desire to make this a fight to remember.
Taylor, Serrano, and promoters Eddie Hearn and Jake Paul spoke today at the final press conference, which you can watch in full up top in the video. If you can’t watch, we’ve got all the quotes for you, too.
Katie Taylor
“I definitely am very, very proud of this event. It does feel different. Just seeing the amount of media today and all week as well — I’m sick of talking about myself, but it’s been an amazing week.
“It’s definitely very, very different to how I started boxing as a 9 or 10 year old, when I actually had to pretend to be a boy to get fights. Women’s boxing wasn’t even a sanctioned sport in Ireland, now here we are many years later headlining Madison Square Garden, the most iconic venue in boxing, making history as the biggest fight in female boxing history. This is all the sacrifice I’ve been working for, for sure.”
“You’re seeing with the fact that this is going to be a sellout, there is a great appetite out there for big female fights. This is very, very special, because it is the best versus the best, it’s champion versus champion. This is just a great boxing match. This isn’t just the best female boxing match in the world, but probably the best fight you can see right now, male or female. We’re going to put on an absolute showcase for the sport.”
“I don’t train to lose any fights, I train to win. It’s the same for me on Saturday night, I’ll step in there confident that I’ll be coming out victorious. But the best part about this fight, and my whole legacy, is being able to inspire the next generation. This fight is going to inspire a lot of young girls, and that’s to me the best part about this.”
“I think the fight is going to be a very, very exciting fight, and the winner is going to have to show a lot of heart, a lot of grit, and a lot of skill. It’s going to be a combination of all those things. I think you’re going to see great boxing.”
“It’s definitely bigger now than it ever was before. A couple of years ago we were going to fight during the pandemic in Eddie Hearn’s backyard, with no people there. Now here we are in the most iconic venue in boxing and it’s going to be an absolute sellout. I’m very, very grateful right now that that fight didn’t happen a couple years ago. There was a time where I was thinking, ‘Gosh, this fight isn’t going to happen,’ and it would have been an awful shame if it didn’t happen, because it is the best versus the best, like I said.”
Amanda Serrano
“It’s been a long time since, I mean — it’s finally happening. We’re getting our shine. We couldn’t ask for a better place to make history once again. I made history winning my Golden Gloves here at the Hulu Theater, and I made history on DAZN with you guys becoming a seven-division world champion, and I plan to do the same thing at the big Garden. It’s my first fight there, but I shine under pressure.
“I’m just excited to go out there. I trained hard like I always in every fight, I never underestimate my opponents. I know Katie Taylor is a true champion; she’s undefeated and undisputed for a reason. But one of my goals is to become undisputed champion, and she has that. I’m going up once again two divisions to face one of the best fighters in the world. I’m ready and I can’t wait to prove that we deserve all the opportunities and the spotlight.
“It’s been an amazing, long journey getting here to fight Katie Taylor. I think the timing couldn’t be better than right now. I just can’t wait for Saturday night, and I’m so looking forward to Sunday and being undisputed champion.”
“It doesn’t matter what we say. We’re probably, like, the two nicest fighters. There’s no bad talk between me and Katie Taylor, because the fights are won inside the ring, not outside. We don’t need to talk bad about each other. Our accomplishments got us where we’re at right now. We’re making history together. And I couldn’t be happier than to share that ring with Katie Taylor.
“But 13 years as a pro fighter, I’ve struggled, I’ve fought my way to this spot right now, and I want to go out there and just secure that victory. No matter what happens Saturday night, I think the real winners are the fans, and women in general and the sport of women’s boxing, because it’s only going to grow from now on.”
“You’re going to see great talent out there, two of the best going at it. You’re going to see heart, glory, lots of punches, and enjoy a great night of boxing. It’s not just female boxing, but a great night of boxing.”
“(The media) would not let us not have this fight. I was pretty confident the fight was going to happen, but not at this magnitude. Once Jake Paul put his name on it, it just flew off the rope, and I’m truly honored and blessed for that. And Katie, too, we’re making our biggest payday, we’re at the Mecca of boxing, so it’s super exciting.”
Eddie Hearn
“Just to put some magnitude into this event, when we came to Madison Square Garden with the dream of staging this unique, historic, legacy event, they couldn’t have been more supportive. In fact, we came into this arena, and said, ‘Maybe we should do it in the small arena.’ They said no, we said no, DAZN said no — we had to try and push the boundaries, as these two great female athletes have done for many, many years.
“I was nervous, to be honest with you. Jake popped up, I was a bit less nervous. But as we sit here with around 15,000 tickets already sold and heading towards a sellout on Saturday night, with nearly half of those traveling from the UK and Ireland, we are going to have an incredible atmosphere for an incredible moment.”
“Katie Taylor is someone that is incredibly inspirational to me, to young females, to males, to everybody around the world, because she’s continuously not allowed anything to get in the way of her dreams. In 2002, when she walked into Bray Boxing Club, before she walked in, she had to put a headguard on to pretend she was a boy. Girls’ boxing was banned in Ireland. In her early amateur career, she was ‘K Taylor’ — she had the headguard on, she had to pretend that she was a boy, fighting other boys to get to this position.
“Fast forward, an incredible amateur career, and she campaigned to the IOC to make sure that women’s boxing had a place in the Olympics. She was laughed at, as she has been for a long portion of her career. She kept on banging the door down and eventually women’s boxing was installed into the Olympics. She went on and won gold.”
“The great thing about this fight and this weekend is, Madison Square Garden won’t be full up because everyone feels it’s nice to support women’s boxing. It will be full up because it’s a great fight. And that’s what Katie only ever wanted, the ability to perform on stages like this because of her ability. She didn’t want people to support women’s boxing because it was a nice thing to do, she wanted people to support women’s boxing because of their ability.
“On Saturday night, you see a great fighter, regardless of male or female, one of the great fighters of our generation in one of the great fights of our generation.”
“We talk about what this might do to inspire a next generation of young female athletes, and as someone with two daughters, I look at Katie Taylor in a world of Instagram and TikTok and I say, ‘I want you to have a dream like Katie Taylor.’ When someone tells you no and you believe in something so strongly, don’t give up. Chase your dreams, break down the boundaries, overcome the barriers, work hard and anything is possible.
“It’ll be a very proud moment, and not just for young females, but for all of us. This shows us that if you want something bad enough, anything is possible. It’ll be a very emotional time for a lot of people involved to see Katie Taylor walk out at the Mecca of boxing, on the stage she lives and breathes for.”
Jake Paul
“This feels like a unification of the heavyweight division. This is massive. Just wearing my promoter hat, if this fight happens again or one like it, we’re going to have to get these ladies even more of a payday, because I’ve never seen this amount of media at any fight. I’m talking, you know, eight figures. This is what it feels like and they deserve it.
“I’m so excited for this fight, first and foremost, and for that first bell to ring. These ladies are gonna put on a show and change history here at Madison Square Garden. I’m honored to be a part of it. I want to thank Christy Martin and Laila Ali for really making this possible and paving the way for Amanda and Katie. And obviously, what Katie has done for the sport is just incredible, and pushing alongside (Eddie Hearn) to grow female boxing.
“I cannot wait. Amanda Serrano is ready. When I first met Amanda, she was a seven-division world champion getting paid $5-10,000 for a fight. To think that we’re here a year later, it’s massive, and that’s because of the supporters and the platform that we’ve all built, that Amanda and Katie have built to push this narrative forward.
“It’s the young ladies out there who are supporting these women, and I want to call on women right now to be a part of Saturday night, to tune in, to watch, to buy the pay-per-view, to support these ladies, because that’s what this fight needs. We need to prove that the business side of this can sustain so that women’s boxing can continue to get big paydays, continue to drive forward, and continue to be equal in all aspects of the sport. If you’re a woman out there watching this, tune in Saturday night to support these ladies. They’ve worked their whole entire lives, sacrificing and dedicating themselves to this moment.”
Bad Left Hook will have live coverage for Taylor vs Serrano on Saturday, April 30, starting with the prelims at 4:30 pm ET and continuing with the main card at 7:30 pm ET.
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