Eddie Hearn has made securing Katie Taylor her dream Croke Park homecoming fight one of his top priorities for 2023.
The promoter insists GAA Headquarters is the only place the Bray Bomber's homecoming fight can take place and is hopeful that Taylor will face Amanda Serrano in a massive rematch at the Jones Road venue next spring.
Taylor has never fought on Irish soil as a professional and time is running out for a deal to be done that would see the 36-year-old headline the first boxing show at Croke Park since Muhammad Ali's victory against Al 'Blue' Lewis over 50 years ago.
"It's a must," said Hearn on the prospect of Taylor fighting at the famous venue. "The fact that she's never boxed in Ireland before [as a professional] obviously means it's a must for us, but I want to do it in Croke Park.
"Like I don't just want to go back to the 3Arena. We could have done this fight in the 3Arena but we want that moment at Croke Park and to do that really we need an Amanda Serrano or a big name of that ilk.
"For us now it's a lot more positive now with Amanda Serrano and hopefully if Katie's triumphant at the weekend we can move forward and try to make that fight."
Hearn stated earlier this year that he felt the Serrano rematch was the only bout suitable for Croke Park, but he now appears open to other options.
MMA stars Holly Holm and Cris Cyborg are two of those, while the winner of next week's Abu Dhabi bout between American Jessica McCaskill, who Taylor defeated in her first world title defence in 2017, and England's Chantelle Cameron is another.
Hearn explained: "If McCaskill against Cameron is a Taylor-Serrano/ Shields-Marshall next week, maybe that fight becomes big enough to do at Croke Park.
"You got other MMA fighters that could crossover, whether that's Holly Holm or Cris Cyborg, or Alycia Baumgardner, but for me as a promoter the one that puts it on the line when you go into a stadium of that size, the one that I feel most comfortable with and the one that deserves that platform is Taylor-Serrano two."
He added: "I feel like Jessica McCaskill has never really had the credit in terms of what she's achieved. She fought Katie Taylor at lightweight, she moved up to 140, she won the 140 world title, she unified the title, she moved up to 147 to go and become undisputed against Cecilia Braekhus, now she's going back to 140 to fight for the undisputed belt.
"She's got a chance to become a two-division undisputed champion so she would deserve a fight with Katie Taylor, but so does Chantelle Cameron. That's a really big fight that a lot of people in boxing have wanted for a long time and that's the sort of fight that will give Chantelle Cameron the opportunity to make a name for herself and become undisputed. That's when Taylor-Cameron becomes a real possibility."
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