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Women’s boxing has been around for decades but more than any other year it really took off in 2022 with a series of major fights fans wanted to see — that were not on pay-per-view — and they often produced highly entertaining and competitive results.
No bout covered all of those bases more so that when undisputed women’s lightweight champion Katie Taylor defended her crown against unified featherweight champion Amanda Serrano on April 30 in the main event on DAZN at the sold-out Madison Square Garden in New York, where Taylor’s Irish fans and Serrano’s Puerto Rican fans packed the joint. You read that correctly — sold out.
It was also the first women’s bout to headline at the famed arena, it was a great matchup and the public responded, not to mention a boxing media corps (and even some mainstream outlets) that really got behind it.
Throw in the relentless promotion by Taylor promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing and Serrano promoter Jake Paul, who hyped it as the biggest women’s fight in boxing history, and you had one big-time event.
But none of that would have mattered if the women didn’t do their part. And they most certainly did in what will go down thus far as the best women’s fight in boxing history and the obvious pick as the Fight Freaks Unite women’s fight of the year.