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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Robert Hynes

Katie Taylor backed to beat Amanda Serrano via knockout by Eddie Hearn

Eddie Hearn is backing Katie Taylor to knock Amanda Serrano out in their mega Madison Square Garden showdown this weekend.

The Matchroom CEO watched on at the Mecca of boxing on Wednesday as the undisputed lightweight champion was put through her paces by trainer Ross Enamait at the open workouts.

The 20-0 Bray fighter has only won six of her professional bouts by stoppage, with the last of those coming over three years ago.

In comparison, Serrano has achieved KOs in 30 of her 42 wins, including in three of her last five fights.

But Taylor's promoter is confident that she can stop Serrano late on in their ten-round contest on Saturday night.

He said: "Katie Taylor looks so good and so fresh. I'm actually going for a Katie Taylor late stoppage in this fight and I don't think that's going to be a common pick from people but I just feel like she's got that eye of the tiger.

"People look at Katie sometimes and think 'softly spoken, oh she's such a nice girl' and she is, but she's a fierce competitor and she really wants to do a job on Amanda Serrano. It's going to be a great fight."

The 2012 Olympic champion has insisted that people will see the best version of her this weekend and she reiterated that promise on Wednesday.

Speaking after her workout, she said: "I'm feeling great. The preparation has gone fantastic, the training camp has been great, I feel strong and I feel like I am going to showcase my absolute best on Saturday night.

"I feel like these kinds of opponents get the best out of me as well. This is a history-making moment and I'm prepared to put in a history-making performance as well."

Katie Taylor (Ed Mulholland/Matchroom)

Serrano also did a public workout at the iconic venue on Wednesday, with her boxing promoter and YouTuber Jake Paul among those in attendance.

The Puerto Rican fighter has won world titles in seven different weight classes and has only been beaten once in 44 professional fights and that was all the way back in 2012.

To mark the historic event, the Empire State Building will be lit up in the colours of the Irish and Puerto Rican colours on Saturday night.

Serrano, who grew up in nearby Brooklyn, says she is honoured to be headlining such an iconic show.

She said: “Being a Latina from Brooklyn, I’m excited to say, ‘I’ve made it. I’m fighting the main event at Madison Square Garden! I’m making seven figures, a young Latina from Brooklyn. I never thought it could happen.

“I’ve never fought at MSG; I did a tour there recently and then we did the press conference there; I was in awe of it, and I am so honored to be fighting here.

Amanda Serrano (Ed Mulholland/Matchroom)

"I made history at the Hulu Theater by becoming seven-weight World champion and I won the Golden Gloves there too - it’s full circle now being able to be headlining in the big room and following some of the greats.”

With large Irish and Puerto Rican communities in New York and right across America, Taylor expects an amazing atmosphere when the pound-for-pound #1 and #2 female fighters in the world finally clash this weekend.

She added: “The atmosphere is always electric at MSG. You can almost feel those iconic moments from the past when you are there. There’s going to be a lot of Irish fans in the building, I think it could easily be a 50-50 crowd with a lot of Amanda’s fans too, so it’s going to make for an amazing atmosphere.

“You think of Madison Square Garden, and you think the likes of Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier these kinds of fights. It’s years and years later we’re still talking Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier kind of fights. I think years and years later from this fight people are still going to be talking about Katie Taylor versus Amanda Serrano.”

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