Eddie Hearn: Katie Taylor taught me that women’s boxing has to be a standalone product as a great sport – not as a token of goodwill

On Saturday night, Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano will earn $1m apiece for their bout. The pioneering Jane Couch and the promoter Eddie Hearn reflect on the rise of female fighters

UP IN LIGHTS: Katie Taylor preparing for Saturday's World Lightweight Title fight against Amanda Serrano.

EDDIE Hearn and Jane Couch could hardly be more different but they are united this week by a shared disbelief and delight. As we approach the landmark moment on Saturday night when Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano step into the ring at Madison Square Garden in New York to contest the most significant and lucrative fight in the history of women’s boxing, the promoter and the pioneer sound relieved and ecstatic.

Twenty-four years ago Couch won her case against the British Boxing Board of Control when the high court ruled that she should become the first woman in the UK to be granted a licence to box professionally. Until then the BBBC had banned women from the ring on the basis that they were too frail and “emotionally unstable” to box, owing to their menstrual cycle.