Katie Taylor remains undefeated as a professional fighter after beating Amanda Serrano via split-decision in a fight of the year contender at Madison Square Garden.
After an absolutely brilliant ten rounds of boxing it was up to the judges to split the pair, with two giving Taylor the fight and the other scoring it in Serrano's favour.
The first scorecard read out was 96-94 Serrano, while the other two were 97-93 and 96-93 in Taylor's favour.
Serrano was the one throwing more punches as the action commenced, but Taylor was much more accurate with her shots and had success in the opening round countering the challenger.
But one punch that did land on the champion drew blood from her nose.
Taylor continued to move brilliantly in the second round, ducking and diving from a lot of Serrano's punches and she landed a beautiful right on the Puerto Rican.
The referee had to split the pair midway through the third before Serrano got much closer to the champion.
Both fighters let their hands go for a bit then and Serrano began to get the better of the exchanges and had success with her jab towards the end of that round.
Taylor landed some nice combinations in the fourth but things began to go badly wrong for her in the fifth when Serrano got her into the corner.
The 35-year-old's nose began to bleed badily at this stage and Serrano began to really inflict damage with a mix of body shots and punches to the head as Taylor's guard went completely and she began to get hit with everthing Serrano threw.
It was a similar story for much of sixth but Taylor did have some success later in the round as she began to land some combinations.
Taylor began to move better in the eighth and got the cleaner shots off, but Serrano threw more.
The Irish crowd began to get behind their hero once again as Ole, Ole, Ole chants rang out before shout of Katie Katie Katie.
She had more success again in the ninth.
Serrano continued to press in the tenth but Taylor landed some beautiful shots and all the momentum was with her as the clock ticked down.
Both of them continued to throw everything they could in the final seconds and hugged as the final bell sounded.
The Bray boxer came into the bout with an undefeated record, having won all 20 of her previous fights.
Serrano on the other hand had won nine different world titles in an incredible seven different weight classes.
Taylor has not won via knockout since since March 2019, while Serrano had achieved KOs in 30 of her 42 wins, including in three of her last five fights before this one.
Her promoter Eddie Hearn had predicted a late stoppage for Taylor pre-fight and it looked a possibility in the final round.
Some 5,000 tickets for the fight were purchased by people living in Ireland, while thousands more Irish fans travelled from all around America, Canada and further afield to the Mecca of boxing.
The arena was slow to fill up, especially with supporters of Taylor, which was no surprise given there was no Irish fighter on the undercard.
But the atmosphere was electric by the time Taylor and Serrano made their way to the ring at just after 10pm local time.
Taylor was accomopanied to the ring by her trainer Ross Enamait, promoter Eddie Hearn and manager Brian Peters.
Taylor, as she usually does after her fights, is expected to spend some time with her family over the coming days and weeks before deciding on her next move.
The 2012 Olympic champion has never fought in Ireland as a professional and time is running out for it to happen.
No major professional boxing event has taken place in Dublin since David Byrne was shot dead at a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel in 2016 when Daniel Kinahan was believed to be the main target.
US sanctions recently imposed on the mob boss has seen senior boxing figures distance themselves from him and Hearn stated prior to Taylor's fight that victory could earn her a Dublin bout.
He said: "“I just think it would be very disappointing if she never got the chance to go to Ireland and let her have that moment. We will see what happens."
“It too early to comment on anything that has happened [the demise of MTK and Kinahan not being involved in boxing], but if she beats Serrano maybe we could do the repeat there.”
Hearn again suggested that the rematch could take place in Dublin after the fight.
In the other undisputed world title fight on the night, American Franchon Crews Dezurn defeated Sweden's Elin Cederroos via unanimous decision in a very entertaining contest before Liam Smith stopped Jessie Vargas.
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