The top of the heap in women's boxing has never been hotter.
You have DAZN Women's Boxing No. 2 pound-for-pound fighter Claressa Shields competing not only in boxing but also in MMA, where she's 1-0. She competes for PFL on Oct. 27 and then plans on returning to the “sweet science” in either December or early 2021. Then you have No. 3-ranked Amanda Serrano, who fought in Sunday's co-main event of the Jake Paul-Tyron Woodley fight and dominated Yamileth Mercado to retain her WBC and WBO featherweight titles.
The woman at the top of the mountain, No. 1-ranked Katie Taylor, makes her return to the ring on Saturday when she puts her IBF, WBA, WBC, and IBF lightweight belts on the line against Jennifer Han from Emerald Headingley Stadium in Leeds, England.
Taylor and Serrano were scheduled to square off in August 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic forced numerous postponements. However, the fight didn't come off as Serrano pulled out due to financial reasons. After her win over Mercado, Serrano made it clear she wants to revisit the Taylor showdown if her purse is fair. Taylor admits that Serrano is the reason the clash didn't occur. But Serrano's big win last weekend, and if Taylor gets past Han, the undisputed women's lightweight champion is excited at the potential matchup because the battle would be more significant now than it was last year.
"That's a fight that has been talked about for the last couple of years, Taylor tells DAZN News. "This fight has been brewing for a long time. It’s been scheduled a couple of times before. I was asked to prepare for that fight before and it fell through a couple of times and not because of me. I think that her and her team were the ones actually pulled out of the fight. I would obviously be very, very excited as well to step into the ring against Amanda Serrano. I actually think the fight is bigger now than it has been before. So if it happens, it's going to be huge."
Taylor (18-0, 6 KOs) steps into action for the fourth time in a little over 12 months. Han (18-3-1, 1 KO) is the mandatory challenger of the IBF. Taylor could have relinquished one of the 135-pound titles and looked for a bigger fight with either Serrano or undisputed women's welterweight champion Jessica McCaskill. However, she wants to keep all the gold, and so Han it is.
"I was going to obviously be fighting this time around," Taylor admits. "But she (Han) was the number one IBF challenger, so this is a fight I actually had to take. I want to hold on to all my belts. I'm not willing to give up on one of the belts, so I am very happy to fight the mandatories. She has been the number one challenge over the last year or so. So I am excited about this fight. I know that she's going to bring her best game and Saturday night as well. So this is a fight I am actually looking forward to."