Shipping up to Boston – Change of Plan for Katie Taylor
Katie Taylor [10(5)-0] is likely to make the next defence of her IBF and WBA lightweight world titles in Boston rather than Chicago.
Ireland’s only reigning unified world champion was initially announced to be faceing Puerto Rican Cindy Serrano [27(10)-5(0)-3] on Matchroom USA’s DAZN debut in the Windy City on October 6th.
Taylor was confirmed to fight the older sister of potential future opponent Amanda Serrano at a press conference in New York last month – however there have been numerous changes to the bill at the Wintrust Arena since.
Initially, Taylor’s title fight was to feature alongside two-division world champion Jessie Vargas, middleweight contender Demetrius Andrade, an IBF light heavyweight title defence from Artur Beterbiev versus Callum Johnson, and a heavyweight bout featuring ‘Big Baby’ Jarrell Miller.
Matchroom USA had been due to run a show on October 20th in L.A. but, following the agreement of Billy Joe Saunders v Andrade for the Englishman’s WBO middleweight title, there has been a shuffle around.
The October 20th card has now been shifted to the U.S. East Coast and is set to land at a to-be-confirmed arena in Boston – close to Andrade’s home state of Rhode Island.
With Boston having a notably large Irish population, Taylor will migrate across to this bill.
Having an Irish presence on the Boston card certainly makes sense and Taylor will get the chance to impress in a place the likes of Gary O’Sullivan, Ray Moylette, Niall Kennedy, and TJ Doheny have won fans in in recent years.
The Wicklow favourite defended her titles in style against IBF mandatory challenger Kimberly Connor last month and Serrano will be her third bout of the year.
However, this two-week postponement could have notable ramifications as it would look to scupper any possibility of a fourth fight of 2018 – with a December bout, potentially a unification, having previously being mooted.
Indeed, with the deeply religious and family-orientated Taylor unlikely to train through the Christmas period at her base in Connecticut, it would look likely that the Bray fighter’s next bout will now take place a few months into 2019.
The 32-year-old did undergo an even shorter October to December turnaround last year, with her world title fights versus Anahi Sanchez and Jessica McCaskill taking place less than seven weeks apart but, afterwards, this was seen as having been too little time and contributory to a surprisingly competitive fight.
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The October 6th Chicago bill will be officially unveiled at a press conference in the city today.
WBA bantamweight champion Daniel Roman, initially due to box on October 20th when this card was due to take place in L.A., will now feature on the bill in a defence of his title versus Gavin McDonnell.
Miller looks set to face faded former light heavyweight champ Tomasz Adamek – with the Polish puncher likely to appeal to the large Polish community in the city.
Beterbiev v Johnson remains on the bill while Vargas is reported to be facing former light welterweight title challenger Thomas Dulorme.
