Jake Paul offers Katie Taylor $2m to fight Amanda Serrano at 126lbs

The YouTuber-turned-manager has challenged the Irish superstar to drop down to featherweight and 'cement her legacy'. 

READY TO RUMBLE?  Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano trade punches during their New York meeting.

Katie Taylor's hopes of securing a highly anticipated rematch with Amanda Serrano have been dealt a substantial blow by the New Yorker’s promoter Jake Paul who insists she must drop down two weight classes for the fight.

Taylor and Serrano served up arguably the greatest fight in women’s boxing history in April at Madison Square Garden when the former secured a split decision victory after 10 brutal rounds with Serrano.

Following the success of their historic encounter it was assumed that they would meet in an immediate rematch but, as is so often the case in boxing, the most obvious option for both fighters failed to materialise.

Instead Serrano will face Brenda Carbajal back at MSG on Saturday night on the undercard of Paul’s fight with Hasim Rahman Jr. Taylor, meanwhile, has not boxed since April and is still waiting on a date for her next outing.

And, when asked whether or not he expects Taylor and Serrano to meet again, Youtuber-turned-boxer Paul declared that the undisputed world lightweight champion from Bray will have to shed nine pounds of bodyweight if she wants the rematch.

“We can see that again,” Paul said. “We have a $2m offer for Katie Taylor to come down to 126lbs to see if she really is the pound-for-pound best.

“Amanda obviously went up nine pounds to fight her at 135lbs last time so now we want to make the rematch at 126. That’s what we’re hoping for and if Katie Taylor truly is the legend that she wants to be and to further her legacy and cement it as the greatest female fighter of all time, she will come down to 126lbs.

“That would be the most impressive thing. We have $2m for Katie Taylor there.” 

Taylor’s career lightest was way back in 2016 when she weighed in at 132lbs and she went as high as 138 1/2lbs in order to win the WBO light-welterweight title against Christina Linardatou in November 2019.

Serrano is the much smaller woman, and has amazingly won world titles at the 115lb super-flyweight title and up at light-welterweight too. Therefore Paul believes it would be fair for her rematch with Taylor to take place down at featherweight.

At 36 years old, the chances of Taylor accepting those terms are minute and when asked if he is prepared to negotiate, Paul said: “Look I think she can make that weight. I think she really can.

“We will see and that’s what would cement her legacy and make it non-debatable. On the night of the first fight, Amanda was fighting at 132lbs, she wasn’t even weighing 135 but there’s Taylor at 145lbs on the night.

“There was a 13lb difference on fight night and at that light of a weight that’s a huge difference.”