- Rematch likely after Irish boxer battles to split-decision win
- Sold-out Madison Square Garden fight ‘surpasses Olympic gold’
The wry grin pasted across Katie Taylor’s bruised, swollen face told the whole story. Ireland’s greatest athlete had just navigated the deepest waters of her career to roar back from near-defeat and retain her undisputed lightweight championship with a split-decision win over Amanda Serrano, a heart-stopping affair before a sold-out crowd of 19,187 rollicking spectators that Taylor described as a “career-defining performance”.
“I had to dig deep in there tonight,” Taylor told reporters early Sunday morning in the bowels of Madison Square Garden. “This is a special, special moment. The best night of my career for sure. I wasn’t sure if anything could reach my Olympic gold medal moment, but tonight was absolutely the best moment of my career.”