Jake Paul reckons Katie Taylor should step down in weight for a potential rematch against Amanda Serrano.
The influencer-turned-fighter was meant to be back in the ring next weekend at Madison Square Garden against Hasim Rahman Jr, but the fight was officially cancelled with Paul claiming Rahman’s weight being the reason.
The August 6th pay-per-view event was also set to feature women’s star Amanda Serrano against Brenda Carabajal – with it not being clear if that fight will be rescheduled could the rematch with Taylor now be next?
The YouTuberr he has urged the undisputed lightweight champion Taylor (21-0, 6 KOs) to drop down to featherweight and rematch the Puerto Rican (42-2-1, 30 KOs).
Taylor, who holds the WBA Super, IBF, WBC and WBO titles in the 135-pound division, outpointed Serrano at MSG in April in what was the biggest fight in female boxing.
Though Eddie Hearn, Taylor’s promoter, has named five opponents who could be in the opposite corner when the Bray lady returns to the ring later this year, the aforementioned Paul believes a second match-up between the two superstars would be epic and has offered Taylor $2million to drop down two weight clashes and fight the seven-weight world champion.
Speaking to DAZN, Paul said:
“The only reason [the rematch is not happening] is that Amanda wants to keep her belts at 126lbs so she is the unified champion there, and they said they were going to strip her belts if she didn’t defend them right now,”
Serrano has said that she is eager to go to Dublin, Taylor’s neck of the woods, for the second fight, but the big-punching southpaw must first defend her IBO, WBC and WBO 126-pound belts against Brenda Carabajal.
Paul continued:
“We have money for Katie Taylor too.”
“We have $2m for Katie Taylor to come down to 126, let’s see who really is the pound-for-pound best is.”
Taylor has fought at lightweight for the majority of her career, picking up every belt in that division since turning pro after a glittering amateur career which involved two Olympics, five world gold medals and six European golds, but she did step up to super-lightweight back in November 2019 to beat Christina Linardatou to add the WBO title at 140 pounds to her collection.