Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano will lock horns in a fiercely anticipated rematch for super lightweight supremacy on November 15.
The pair collided for the undisputed lightweight championship back in 2022, with Taylor edging a contentious split decision following a compelling back-and-forth battle.
Since then, the Irishwoman has moved up to 140 lbs, only to suffer her first professional defeat against Chantelle Cameron before avenging the blemish in their immediate rematch.
And so, with Taylor becoming only the second female fighter to be crowned a two-division undisputed champion, her upcoming clash with seven-weight world champion Serrano is certainly one to look forward to.
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Alycia Baumgardner calls for three-minute rounds in women’s boxing
Taylor and Serrano will, of course, be featuring on the Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson undercard, which, along with the controversial main-event, will be streamed live on Netflix from the AT&T Stadium, Texas.
Ahead of their second encounter, though, Serrano had flirted with the idea of scheduling the showdown for 12, three-minute rounds, as opposed to the traditional 10, two-minute rounds.
The Puerto Rican, indeed, completed the full 36-minutes in her featherweight title defense against Danila Ramos last year, becoming the first woman to do so.
However, when the 36-year-old pitched the same idea to Taylor, she was ultimately met with a stern rejection.
Some fighters, after all, are better suited to the shorter distance, while others, such as undisputed super featherweight champion Alycia Baumgardner, are keen to see the change finally happen.
“I wonder what [three-minute rounds] feels like,” Baumgardner said on The PorterWay Podcast.
“When you’re very strategic, I think you are able to set up more things, but also just separate yourself too – to really show the skill in women fighters.
“I want people to see what a three minute round looks like. There’s so much more in the bag I’m like, ‘damn, two minutes? – that’s quick.’
“If [the sanctioning bodies] want to keep the separation [between male and female fighters], they’ll be like, ‘you’re only going to do two minutes.’”
Why do female boxers fight for a shorter duration than male boxers?
Serrano, Mikaela Mayer and now Baumgardner have largely been the biggest advocates for 12, three-minute rounds in women’s boxing.
So much so, in fact, that Serrano even vacated her WBC title when the sanctioning body refused to entertain the possibility of a longer duration for women’s fights.
So now, it would appear that the future of women’s boxing rests firmly in the hands of boxing’s four major sanctioning bodies – the WBC, IBF, WBO and WBA.
And yet, with most of these decisions seemingly being made by men – such as WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman – the potential for change is slowly becoming less realistic.