It’s now or never for Amanda Serrano as she gets a third chance to beat Katie Taylor in the boxing ring.
Serrano and Taylor will fight on Friday at Madison Square Garden on a historic night for women’s boxing as the card will be made up entirely of women’s fighters.
Jake Paul has been instrumental in the event, with several of the fighters joining his promotion company, Most Valuable Promotions.
One of those, who is also fighting in New York is Chantelle Cameron, who handed Taylor her one and only defeat in 2023.
The Irish star claimed revenge in the rematch but if Serrano finally wants to claim victory, the Puerto Rican can look no further than the blueprint Cameron followed.
Chantelle Cameron’s trainer reveals how she beat Katie Taylor in 2023
Fighting in Dublin, all of the odds were stacked against Cameron but she was able to defy the odds and pull it out of the bag.
Cameron earned victory by majority decision and gave the Bray-born Taylor no sniff of a win and her trainer Jamie Moore revealed that her boxing IQ and lessons to handle the occasion made the difference.
He told Sky Sports: “Everyone, rightly so, is obsessed with training the body. I’m a big believer in when you’re a world class fighter, or at least a British class fighter, you know how to fight. At a certain level small percentages make a big difference.
“If you’re prepared mentally then you’re going to have a better chance against an equal sort of level of talent. I always say to my fighters make sure when you’re in there – as long as you’re fit and everything – that your mind has to be in the right place.
“People have got that much respect for Katie, rightly so, then that can be a little bit overwhelming for opponents and they don’t commit to it, because they’ve got a lot of respect for her.
“I kept saying to Chantelle I know we’ve got a lot of respect for Katie but on the night for half an hour you have no respect for her. You go in there and you dominate her and then afterwards we go back to how it was before.”
Katie Taylor thinks Amanda Serrano 3 fight doesn’t match pressure of Olympic fight
Without the work of Taylor in the past, there’s every chance that this fight between herself and Serrano wouldn’t be going ahead.
The 38-year-old was a huge influence in getting women’s boxing added to the Olympics programme after travelling to the International Olympic Committee to box in front of them to persuade them.
Women’s boxing was introduced at the 2012 Olympics and the Irish legend admitted she felt more nervous than she has in any other occasion.
She told The Sun: “People talk about the pressure today but it’s nothing in comparison to the pressure I felt then. Then, I’m not just fighting for myself — but for every female fighter for boxing at the Olympic Games.
“I knew that I just had to perform in those fights because this was more important than myself. So, those were huge pressure fights and what I’m experiencing today is nothing in comparison.”