Katie Taylor reveals plans to become world champion at three weights

Katie Taylor is far from done making history.

The undisputed world lightweight champion is holding out hope that she can get in the ring with Amanda Serrano sooner rather than later, while talk of a rematch with Delfine Persoon will likely linger as long as both are still pulling on gloves after their superb contest in Madison Square Garden last month.

Yet both prospective bouts are in doubt for different reasons right now — the first due to complications with Serrano’s contract, the latter due to the latter’s still-small public profile in the US. The Bray boxer, now 33, doesn’t seem prepared to hang around, or limit her sights to the challenges in her own 135 lbs bracket.

If needs be, Taylor will move up in weight and look to become undisputed world champion at two, maybe even three, different weights with super lightweight champion Jessica McCaskill and welterweight supremo Ceclia Braekhus firmly in her sights.

There was some hope that Taylor would leap up two divisions — from 135 lbs to 147 — to face the 37-year old Braekhus in the autumn as part of an anticipated Anthony Joshua-Deontay Wilder bill in Las Vegas.

Best laid plans and all that. The Englishman’s shock defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr on the same night Taylor overcame Persoon in New York scuppered that. For now, maybe. McCaskill is another option, in her case in the 140lb division.

Taylor fought and outclassed the American late in 2017 at the York Hall in London at lightweight but McCaskill now holds the WBC and WBA belts at super lightweight and could be an option if the Serrano and Persoon productions stay stuck in development hell.

“Katie is all about creating history and doing something that has never been done before, breaking boundaries and being undisputed champion at three different weights,” Brian Peters, Taylor’s manager, said.

Taylor’s take on talk of what would be a stunning ‘threepeat’ was simple..

“I’d take that.” she smiled.

All of which should not take away from the fact that Taylor and her camp still see plenty of unfinished business at lightweight. She spoke excitedly about the prospect of a rematch with Persoon given the controversial split decision win in June.

Peters said they would do it “next week” if possible.

Taylor doesn’t normally rewatch her fights in their entirety, preferring byte-sized chunks instead, but she sat through all 10 rounds of the bout with the Belgian and it didn’t change her sense at the time that she had done enough to take the five belts.

“And I’m a very honest person, I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t think that.”

But the Serrano deal is the better fit as a sales pitch.

A world champion across seven weight divisions, she is New York-based and any meeting of the Puerto Rican and Taylor could conceivably make history in itself if it lived up to the burgeoning hype in being granted top-of-the-bill status by a major American TV network.

The problem is a contract wrangle between Serrano and promoter Lou DiBella.

“My understanding is that she has signed a three-fight deal so on that contract she has to fight me, I think on the third fight,” said Taylor.

She is one fight in so she has to fight again and then I’m the third fight on that contract.

“She is claiming that she didn’t see that contract now so I’m not sure what’s going on.”

Whatever the next step, Taylor shows few signs of slowing up. It took her just two-and-a-half years to unify the lightweight belts, 918 days to be exact, and she fought on average every 66 days through that hectic spell.

“It’s definitely been very busy over the last two-and-a-half years. This is actually the longest I’ve been been home in a long time and it’s been six weeks since my last fight. I haven’t had that the last few years because it’s been straight back into training for the next one.”

One way or another, it’s likely to be October before we see her under the lights again.