Former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson is throwing his weight behind Ireland’s Katie Taylor in her upcoming trilogy bout with Amanda Serrano.
Olympic champion Taylor, who turned 39 earlier this month, will take on the multiple weight world champion Serrano inside Madison Square Garden this Friday in what is the latest chapter of the biggest rivalry in the history of women’s boxing.
Taylor has won both of their previous meetings, defeating Serrano by close split decision in their first bout in April 2022 and then repeating her victory — this time by unanimous decision — on the undercard of last November’s Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul fight in Texas. The latter fight was, due to it being broadcast live to subscribers of the Netflix streaming service, was one of the most-watched bouts in the history of boxing.
And ahead of their third — and almost certainly final — fight, Tyson is backing Taylor to get the job done and have a clean sweep of three successive wins over Puerto Rico’s Serrano.
In a call published online by Paul, he challenged Tyson to a $1 million wager on the winner of the fight, backing Serrano — whom he has previously signed to his Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) stable, while Tyson said that he expected that Taylor will once again have her hand raised when all is said and done.
“A lot of people are saying that Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor’s fight was better than ours,” Paul tells Tyson in the brief video clip, which you can view here.
“I got Katie,” Tyson responds.
“All right, we’ll make a bet,” Paul states. “If Katie wins then you get a million dollars, if Amanda wins, I get a million. All right, let’s do it.”
Speaking last year, Tyson said that he was very impressed by Taylor’s ringcraft and has been a fan since her first victory over Serrano more than three years ago.
“I was never aware of Katie until I saw her fight Serrano,” Tyson said of Taylor to the Irish Mirror ahead of their first rematch. “She’s a very good fighter, a very slick boxer, she has good movement.”
“I can see her side movement, that’s how she has to fight because Serrano comes straight forward,” he said. “She doesn’t cut off but when she comes straight forward, Katie has to go to the side, which she was doing earlier and she has to be in the condition to handle the pressure of her continuing to come forward, but she has good side movement and she’s a good puncher.
“She’s a very entertaining boxer. She does the right thing, but she’s got to continue to do it consistently.”
And if Taylor keeps that up this weekend, Tyson will be one step closer to another million dollars in his bank account.
