Mind games.
You have one minute between rounds to sit down, rehydrate, compose yourself, and take on board your coaches instructions.
If you have ever boxed before, you will know that this is easily the fastest minute you will ever experience, much in the same way that holding a plank for minute, is painfully long – it’s still just a minute, but perspective is everything.
(Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)When it’s the biggest fight of your life, and you’re up against the best opponent you have ever faced in your career, you need all of the respite that you can get.
Katie Taylor narrowly beat Amanda Serrano in what has to be the fight of the year – it had absolutely everything, short from the heart and guts physically being spilled out onto the ring.
Taylor won by split decision in the end, and solidified her already guaranteed place in boxing folklore as one of the best to ever do it, and the leading pioneer for females in the sport.
Interestingly, Taylor and her team decided to stand up in-between the first couple of rounds, rather than sit down, and take the rest.
There really is only one reason for this, and that is to make a statement to your opponent. It’s a clear signal that says ‘I’m not even tired, I’m bursting to get back out there.’
One reason to make this statement was potentially because in the champ’s previous big fights, particularly against Delfine Persoon, it could be argued that fatigue hit the Irish native at certain stages, and that might be something Serrano would identify as a potential weakness.
The Puerto Rican’s engine is famed in boxing, and her whole game is based on coming forward, bulling through opponents and never taking her foot off the gas.
So this might have been a mind game played by Taylor, to try and take the wind out of any confidence that Serrano and her team may have had about potentially outworking and outlasting her.
However, in the fourth round, Serrano not only put her foot on the gas, but cut the brakes entirely as she kept punching ferociously and relentlessly, landing clean shots that clearly hurt and bloodied Taylor.
AMANDA SERRANO CATCHES FIRE 😮#TaylorSerrano pic.twitter.com/1ooevhuTjE
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) May 1, 2022
Then in the fifth, it was panic stations for team Taylor as she looked completely out on her feet after taking some heavy shots, and there were genuine fears that the 2012 Olympian could be stopped here.
Needless to say, the stool was quickly brushed off and put back in its rightful place, and although this obviously wasn’t the reason Taylor mustered up the heroic, and remarkable comeback that she did, it was a very obvious advantage for Serrano the second it needed to be used.
Katie Taylor starts strong in Round 9 in a very close fight 👊#TaylorSerrano pic.twitter.com/AO1bKLTkWX
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) May 1, 2022
In the end it will only be a footnote in what was the greatest night in female boxing history, and a night that lives up to the legendary battles of old in boxing as a whole, but still, it could have went very, very wrong.
