Eddie Hearn is fine with sharing the promotional spotlight for this weekend’s historic event in the sport’s most iconic arena.
The veteran boxing promoter can’t help but laugh, however, over industry insiders mentioning Jake Paul—a content creator, cruiserweight novice and co-founder of Most Valuable Promotions (MVP)—in the same breath as Hearn as a champion of furthering women’s boxing. The two join forces for the long-awaited superfight between undisputed lightweight champion Katie Taylor and record-setting, seven-division champ Amanda Serrano, which takes place this Saturday on DAZN from Madison Square Garden in New York City.
“Jake Paul has been helping women’s boxing for about six months. I’ve been doing it for about six years but he gets the praise for it,” Hearn quipped to co-hosts Akin ‘Ak’ Reyes and Barak Bess during Monday’s edition of The DAZN Boxing Show with Ak and Barak. “I don’t care. Give him the plaudits. I’ll be a very proud man on Saturday night when we pull up at Madison Square Garden.”
It's the first-ever female fight to headline at the famed venue, which carries seven-figure paydays for Taylor and Serrano—another first for women’s boxing. The fight was years in the making, and at one point a done deal before the pandemic postponed it and boxing politics left the fight for dead.
It became a reality once again after Paul signed Serrano (42-1-1, 30KOs) to his MVP company last September, soon thereafter working with Hearn to put together the type of fight that the sport—and both fighters—long deserved.
The fight shares the schedule with another terrific matchup on the other side of the U.S. Headlining an overlapping ESPN show, WBC junior lightweight titlist Oscar Valdez (30-0, 23KOs) meets WBO titleholder Shakur Stevenson (17-0, 9KOs) in a highly anticipated title unification bout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It’s the first time that a unification fight takes place in the male 130-pound division since September 2005, also at MGM Grand where Marco Antonio Barrera outpointed Robbie Peden to unify the WBC/IBF belts.
The two main events will not overlap, a rare moment of cooperation between competing platforms. The ring walk for Taylor-Serrano is expected to begin roughly 10:15 p.m. ET, just fifteen minutes into the ESPN telecast and well before Valdez and Stevenson take the ring later that evening.
That said, any competition between the two shows leaves Hearn confident of carrying the superior product.
“No one’s talking about Valdez-Stevenson. I’m sorry, it’s a great fight but Taylor-Serrano is a moment in time,” insists Hearn in a remark sure to get the attention of longtime promotional rival and Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum. “The amount of media coming to Madison Square Garden, I’ve never seen anything like it. This fight when it comes around on Saturday will be absolutely massive.
“Liam Smith against Jessie Vargas is a main event fight anywhere else. [WBC/WBO super middleweight champ Franchon] Crews-Dezurn against [WBA/IBF champ] Elin Cederroos [in an undisputed super middleweight championship]. Galal Yafai, Olympic Gold medal champion fighting for a [regional] title. [Middleweight prospect] Ammo Williams also in a great fight. People have embraced this. They have bought into this moment in time.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
