As Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano headline a boxing card at MSG, a nod to their MMA predecessors

The rising tide of women’s sports in the mainstream overtook boxing Saturday, with Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano becoming the first female fighters to headline Madison Square Garden.

Perhaps the sport owes a nod to its hip, younger cousin.

Mixed martial arts promotions largely embraced the women in their world over the last decade, coming around at a quicker rate than their pugilist counterparts. That showed the larger public a simple truth long denied: women can scrap just as well as men.

“Definitely, I think people are just getting more used to women fighting,” said Matchroom Boxing president Eddie Hearn. “I think the UFC made people more comfortable seeing women in combat sports.”

Cris Cyborg and Gina Carano first headlined a Strikeforce event in 2009, and MMA promoters have increased the presence of women since. Ronda Rousey routinely winning inside a round for about five years certainly accelerated the cause. But even after her retirement, the willingness of the UFC and others to promote new female stars made women’s combat sports less of an oddity and part of the norm.

Outdated attitudes have taken a bit longer to clear from boxing’s old guard.

“I mean, I’ve seen it with my dad [Matchroom founder Barry Hearn], I think a lot of people think women shouldn’t be boxing, women shouldn’t be involved in mixed martial arts, and it’s changing all the time,” Eddie Hearn said.

The visibility and money in MMA lured some of boxing’s top women to the newer sport. Most significant was champion Holly Holm, who dethroned Rousey in front of a then-UFC record 56,214 fans in Melbourne in 2015. Holm later headlined a UFC pay-per-view at Barclays Center. Her decorated boxing career rarely took her outside casinos in her home state of New Mexico.

Brooklyn’s Heather Hardy detoured amid a title run to pursue a deal with Bellator MMA, citing small crowds and poor treatment in boxing. Two-time Olympic gold medalist Claressa Shields, now a two-weight unified champion, is dabbling with the Professional Fighters League.

Serrano herself made the jump as well. In October 2018, she tweeted, then deleted, a message saying her boxing career was over and her focus was on MMA.

“Being my second MMA fight, I got more respect, more money than ever in boxing,” Serrano told Newsday then, when she fought a televised main event for Combate Americas.

Three-plus years later, she is earning seven-figures to headline the mecca of boxing. The hope for Saturday is to blaze trails for the next generation of women, who shouldn’t have to give up their chosen discipline to get the attention and pay to make a living.

Among those is 26-year-old Skye Nicolson. A Hearn-endorsed prospect with less than two months as a professional, the Australian was one of several women on Saturday’s undercard getting a taste of the spotlight, defeating Shanecqua Paisley Davis in a unanimous decision. 

Nicolson was 20 when Rousey-Holm came to her country.

“That was a great chance for the world to see women in combat sports and definitely helped open doors and encourage more girls to get into combat sports, not just MMA but boxing, taekwondo, judo, all of it,” Nicolson said.

Now a pro, Nicolson expressed her gratitude for the platform created by Serrano-Taylor, the latter of which she idolized growing up, but acknowledged the work isn’t over for women in the sport.

“I had my first fight in 2008, women’s boxing wasn’t in the Olympics, pro women’s boxing was so rare, I think there were maybe two pros in Australia,” Nicolson said. “Trailblazers like Katie and Amanda have paved this path, so many women are coming up in my generation now and paving the way for the next generation, and we just need to keep that platform growing.”

By Ryan Gerbosi

ryan.gerbosi@newsday.comRyanGerbosi

Ryan Gerbosi is an internet news manager for sports at Newsday.com. He also covers NYCFC and mixed martial arts and believes the designated hitter should be banned from baseball.