By Scott Gilfoid: Tony Bellew says Katie Taylor would be taking a risk if he chances it by fighting Amanda Serrano in a rematch after beating her by a 10-round split decision last Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Bellew thinks it would be better for the 35-year-old Irish fighter Taylor to “walk away” rather than taking the risk of fighting Serrano (42-2-1, 30 KOs) again. Taylor was hurt badly in the fifth and tenth rounds by Serrano and “out on her feet,” said Bellew.
Tony notes that Taylor landed the “less meaningful punches,” The fifth round could have been 10-8 for Serrano.
The judges that gave Taylor the last three rounds, scoring it the seventh through tenth for her, did this even though she was running the entire time, throwing defensive shots, looking like she was in survival mode.
The scores:
- 96-93 – Taylor
- 97-93 – Taylor
- 96-94 – Serrano
Gilfoid had it scored 98-92 for Serrano. She landed the harder shots, was making the fight and chased the bloody & battered Taylor all around the ring in rounds 6 through 10 after she essentially stopped fighting.
What tells you that Serrano had the deck stacked against her when it came to the scoring for the fight was that the judges gave Taylor the tenth round.
Taylor was hurt in the tenth round, yet the judges still gave it to her. With the judges giving Taylor rounds in which she was in full flight, fleeing the battlefield with the white flag trailing behind her, there’s no way on earth that she deserved the victory.
Yes, you can argue that Serrano stood a chance of winning on the night, not with the judges giving Taylor the last four rounds in full-scale retreat, taking shots as she fled the warzone.
“If she [Katie Taylor] does that again, I think she’s running the risk,” Bellew said to the DAZN Boxing Show.
“I haven’t seen her hurt like that before. I think Katie Taylor landed less meaningful punches. Amanda landed the much harder punches in the fight. She [Taylor] was out on her feet [in the fifth].
“A 10-8 round, they could have [given Serrano]. If I’m Katie Taylor, I’d walk away. The ‘W’ is still the same,” said Bellew when asked how Taylor could walk away with a split decision win.
“I’m not saying she hurt her, but she definitely gave her a little stun,” said Bellew about his belief that Taylor stunned Serrano during the fight.
“Give the boy his credit; he’s done a wonderful job with Amanda Serrano,” said Bellew. “Amanda Serrano was unknown to a lot of people before she was with Jake Paul.
“He has got her to a platform and got her to a payday that was never possible before. She got seven figures. The first female to get seven figures against Katie Taylor,” said Bellew.
