Well said by the relative boxing newbie.
Following Katie Taylor’s recent win over Firuza Sharipova, her promoter Eddie Hearn revealed Jake Paul would play a key role in teeing up ‘the biggest fight in women’s boxing’.
Aside from Taylor and Clarissa Shields, who is up at middleweight, there is no bigger name in women’s boxing than Serrano. Katie Taylor is the biggest draw, but Serrano is not far behind.
Serrano jumped the final hurdle, on Saturday, when she dominated Miriam Gutiérrez to defeat her world titles, on the undercard to the Jake Paul vs. Tyrone Woodley fight. Serrano is now set to put all her marbles up against Taylor’s in April 2022.
It just needs Hearn & Co. to sort out the deal with broadcasters, governing bodies and Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions. After his knock-out win over Woodley, Paul declared:
“I’m going to do everything in my power to make that fight the biggest female boxing fight in the history of the sport and a historic moment.”
The YouTube star, who started exhibition boxing in 2019, also spoke well on women’s boxing and pay disparities in the sport. Serrano and Taylor will definite appreciate his comments.
Jake Paul on “underpaid” female boxers
Paul has only been around pro boxing a couple of years, but he feels one area that needs addressing is better pay for female fighters.
The 24-year-old says the prospect of a big Serrano vs. Taylor fight is so satisfying because ‘she deserves the money and the notoriety more than I do’. He added:
“She’s put in thousands and hundreds of hours in the gym and she deserves the big payday that she’s going to get. She deserves to be able to retire from boxing and not work again.
“That hasn’t been the case for women’s boxing, they’ve been underpaid and taken advantage of and it’s an amazing accomplishment for me to be able to help her and she’s such an awesome person.”
Katie Taylor the highest paid women’s boxer
During an interview on Carl Frampton’s TKO podcast, boxer Heather Hardy spoke about how Katie Taylor is the only female fighter earning close to $1m for fights, but how it still should be more. The New Yorker said:
“I don’t think anyone is getting paid like Katie but, in the same hand, she is… [unifying] all the belts in her weight division, she’s an Olympic gold medallist and she’s not getting paid like a man.
“And it goes back to what you said – that women should be grateful [that the situation is improving]. I’m sure she has this blanket over her head, of feeling, ‘I’m still making more than every other woman’.
“But it still isn’t right. No freedom ’til we’re equal, man!”
Should the Serrano vs. Taylor [or Taylor vs. Serrano, take your pick!] fight get the go-ahead, both women would be set for the biggest pay-days of their storied boxing careers.
There will be world titles up for grabs, too, but a highly placed fight on a strong card, at Madison Square Garden, could set them both up for life.
