It is estimated that some 50 million people around the world tuned in to watch Katie Taylor’s World Title defence on Netflix in the small hours of Saturday morning.
It was as compelling and as visceral as the first meeting between the pair in Madison Square Garden and inevitably talk has turned to a third fight, even though Katie emerged victorious again, to the anger of Serrano’s corner and the surprise of many watching.
It was a close fight all the way through with Serrano on top early and Taylor finishing strong.
She was docked a point in the eighth round for a supposed clash of heads which was hard to see then but which had happened earlier in the fight.
The Netflix cameras zoomed in on the subsequent Serrano cut in between each round and it was more in keeping with the special effects of a Netflix drama rather than sport but the Puerto Rican is tough and never let it stop here from coming forward.
Taylor has a natural weight advantage with Serrano bulking up to fight at this division rather than her natural featherweight of 10 pounds less and that is probably what has told in the end of both the fights so far.
This was a Netflix show and the setting of the Dallas Cowboys stadium in Texas brought out plenty of stars. Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield were part of the panel through the night, and Rhasidat Adeleke was sharing images of herself and Taylor backstage after the fight.
There were technical issues with the stream buffering and they apparently got worse during the ‘main’ headline fight of Mike Tyson against Jake Paul but I had checked out of that particular circus.
A look at the stats shows the difference between the sport and the show. Katie Taylor landed 217 punches and Amanda Serrano 324 in their bout. Mike Tyson landed 18 in his. End of story.
Boxing has always been as much about the show as the fight and nobody who signed up for this will have been surprised or disappointed in what they saw. It won’t be for everyone but what is and it has allowed Taylor to retain her titles, expand her fan base, burnish her reputation and add around $6 million to her bank account.
At the age of 38 and with nothing left to prove there will be many who feel that the time is right to step away and enjoy the fruits of the work she has put in through a massively successful career.
But there is still the idea of a Croke Park homecoming and that was once again floating around in the aftermath of the fight.
Could it still happen? Yes. Is it likely to? No.
In order to attract a crowd of the 70-80,000 that would make it reputationally and financially a winner it would need to be seen as an event to inspire kids and families. The reality is though that a boxing fight, outside of the Olympics, is far from family friendly viewing and with the US still the dominant TV audience, a late night card in Dublin would be a requirement, again hardly fitting with the family nature.
It will be about the money with both boxers seeing the rising benchmark of their value, and plenty more on the promotional side seeing a third fight as an even bigger payday.
For the numbers to add up a return to New York is the much more likely option, with Netflix likely to coma back on board as well.
That would leave a Katie homecoming for the masses to be on an O’Connell Street stage and an open top bus rather than a ring in the middle of Croke Park.
Maybe that would actually be for the best but don’t expect the rumours and the bullhorn negotiation to quieten just yet.
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