Hearn close to confirming a ‘fight for the ages’- Katie Taylor Amanda Serrano issues resolved

Eddie Hearn is confident he will officially confirm the biggest female fight of all time as early as this week.

The Matchroom boss believes he has resolved all the issues recently raised with regard to massively anticipated clash between two of the greatest female fighters of all time, Katie Taylor [15(6)-0] and Amanda Serrano [38(28)-1(0)-1].

Serrano had agreed to the match up for May 2 and the initial July 4 rescheduled date, but over the weekend, revealed she wouldn’t be signing to fight behind closed doors.

Team Serrano, expecting a 50% drop on the original purse – rumoured to be $290,000 – went public with the fact the seven weight world champion wouldn’t be fighting at Matchroom headquarters on August 15.

Hearn, who rumour now suggests was trying to reduce the purse by 15%, has since reached out to the Puerto Rican’s promoter Lou DiBella and confirmed the full purse remains on the table.

As a result he is confident the contract will signed and he can announce the fight sometime this week.

“We wrote to Lou DeBella and confirmed the new date for August. And the good news for Amanda Serrano is she gets her full purse – the full whack. We can now go forward to one of the biggest fights of all time in women’s boxing,” the promoter, who recently signed James Tennyson, told Yahoo.

“We expect that it will be confirmed this week and I think Amanda will now be happy. She has got everything that was promised to her. We will get to see a fight which I think is going to be for the ages.”

Explain the controversy that emerged over the weekend Hearn did admit he suggested a drop in purse.

He claims talk of a 50% cut was ‘rubbish’ while admitting the lack of a gate did force him to redo the maths.

“The fight was going to take place in front of 15,000 at Manchester Arena on the same card as Dillian Whyte and Alexander Povetkin. Of all a sudden all that revenue doesn’t exist any more. It’s no secret.

“I spoke to Lou DiBella. I said ‘listen if you want to box now with no crowds, maybe we have got a new offer for you, maybe there will be a percentage reduction on your purse.’ It’s nothing personal, it’s business, it’s maths.’

“But we never made Lou DiBella a new offer and then Jordan Maldonado came out said they got offered fifty percent [of the original purse]. Absolute rubbish! There was never any offer.”

The Matchroom boss also revealed he got in touch with undisputed lightweight world champion Taylor about a possible delay, but the idea of a voluntary defence didn’t appeal to the Bray fighter.

“She said she wanted to fight Amanda Serrano next,” he added.