Katie Taylor has insisted she deserved the decision in her second fight against Amanda Serrano despite her opponent’s claims.
Taylor and Serrano met at a press conference in New York ahead of their third bout, which will take place at Madison Square Garden on July 12.
Serrano donned a headguard for their face-off, seemingly a reference to her accusation that Taylor was guilty of head butts in their last fight.
Taylor has taken decision wins twice over Serrano, but the latter bitterly disputed the result in the second bout.
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Amanda Serrano has claimed Katie Taylor intentionally headbutted her in their undisputed light-welterweight championship fight. Paul vs Tyson is now available to watch globally on Netflix.
But Taylor hit back, saying: “She has to respect the decisions. If you look at those fights, you can clearly see that I won those two fights. It’s insane. It’s ridiculous really. It’s really, really insane that she thinks she won those fights.
“Of course I won. It was an amazing fight. We’ve had two of the best fights in the history of boxing. Two very, very close fights, but I think that the margins at the top are always very tiny, but I did come out as the deserved winner.”
Serrano said: “She has to prove to everybody and to herself that she beat me, convincingly. Both those fights. And I need to go out there and prove to those judges like, ‘come on – what are you watching?’ So it’s going to be a great fight between both of us. We’re not going to disappoint.”
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Katie Taylor says she’s hoping to put an ‘exclamation mark’ at the end of the fight against Amanda Serrano.
The Puerto Rican also criticised Taylor for fighting over 10 two-minute rounds. Serrano wanted to box 12 three-minute rounds, as they do in men’s boxing.
“We shook on it. If you can roll the tapes, we shook on it. She didn’t agree when we went to sign the contract,” Serrano said.
“If that’s her choice then that’s her choice, but I believe that women should get the recognition and the equality that the men get.”
Taylor holds the undisputed super-lightweight championship. She holds all four of the major belts, but one of the sanctioning bodies, the WBC, does not recognise 12-round bouts for female boxers.
Taylor, as the champion, said the challenger does not get to dictate terms for the fight.
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Watch highlights of Katie Taylor’s epic rematch against Amanda Serrano. Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson is now available to watch globally on Netflix.
“I am 2-0 here and I’m in the driver’s seat. That’s only right at the end of the day. Amanda needs this fight a lot more than I do. I have a long history of big fights against big names and a line of people queued up to fight me for the payday. You need this fight a lot more than I do,” Taylor told Serrano.
“You know that. At the end of the day, I think the point of [you fighting] three-minute rounds was to prove to people that you get more knockouts. How many knockouts did you get in your 12 three-minute rounds? Zero.”
But Taylor concluded: “The first two fights were absolutely epic, two of the most exciting fights of the year, and I’m pretty sure No 3 is going to deliver again.
“This is another legacy-building fight for myself and Amanda. I am 2-0 against Amanda, but I just want to prove myself once more.”
