Eddie Hearn has said the April 30 clash between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano is the “Mayweather-Pacquiao of women’s boxing.” Speaking today with Talk Sport, Hearn had his promoter’s hat firmly atop his head, and the Matchroom boss went as far as to say how “no-one is talking about” the fantastic 130 pound clash that will take place that same night, this between Shakur Stevenson and Oscar Valdez.
We fans are often left frustrated when two big fights, potentially classic fights, take place on rival networks, at different venues, on the same night – sometimes even sharing an identical opening bell time. Yet in this case, Hearn says there is no contest as far as which fight the fans will be tuning in for.
“When I break it down, forget women’s boxing and forget men’s boxing here. This is a great fight,” Hearn said of Taylor-Serrano. “It’s almost like Mayweather-Pacquiao of women’s boxing. You’ve got an undisputed champion against the seven-division world champion. There’s another fight that night. Shakur Stevenson is fighting Oscar Valdez in a unification fight on ESPN. What an amazing fight. No-one is talking about it. Everyone that night will be dialled into Taylor-Serrano and that’s the greatest compliment I can give.”
Talk about a backhanded compliment!
Hearn may have tried to come across as the gentleman promoter here, yet he has, let’s be honest, basically shit on the Valdez-Stevenson fight. Why even bring it up when hyping the female fight that in truth needs no further hype? It remains to be seen which fight pulls in the bigger TV audience, but maybe it’s not the one-horse show Hearn says it is. Plenty of fight fans – old-school fans in particular, those who have not gotten onboard as far as women’s boxing goes – will likely tune in for the Valdez-Stevenson fight.
Bob Arum (who often lays into Hearn, and may well do so again due to Eddie’s words today) recently stated how nobody really cares about women’s boxing and how the folks at ESPN have no fear whatsoever over going head-to-head with Taylor-Serrano. It’s clearly not true for anyone to say women’s boxing is not big, that it’s is not huge these days, but Arum seems confident his fight will not suffer as a result of the “rival” fight going down that same night.
Above all else, let’s hope we get two great fights on April 30. It seems we are in good hands as far as that goes. Taylor-Serrano could be a classic, while Stevenson-Valdez could be sensational also. Forget the rival promoters – we fans will likely be the winners that night. Whichever fight you choose to watch live. Thank heavens for YouTube!
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