Boxing Preview: 30th April featuring Serrano vs Taylor and Stevenson vs Valdez
Photo by J. Yim/Getty Images
A huge weekend for boxing sees probably the biggest women’s fight of all time, and maybe the best, as Katie Taylor takes on Amanda Serrano for all the belts at light flyweight, whereas on the other show we see a unification and no1 vs no2 matchup between Shakur Stevenson and Oscar Valdez.
Katie Taylor vs Amanda Serrano
This fight is, of course, a big deal for out-of-the-ring reasons: by far the highest profile women’s boxing fight we’ve had so far. It is, however, great for boxing reasons too, being the highest-level women’s boxing match we’ve had for a long time- and also possibly ever.
There’s been some concern over whether Katie Taylor is at her best these days- certainly, her time as a pro hasn’t been as smooth as the majority of her legendary amateur days, with a few rough performances and one win in particular- the first over Delfine Persoon- being very controversial. I think this comes in part because she’s caught herself a bit in between two stools, stylistically- she wants to throw more out-and-out volume than she did as an amateur, but she still wants to keep herself mobile and bouncing in-and-out, and as a result she often achieves the opposite of her intent, leaving her feet behind, overbalancing, and making herself less mobile and much less able to execute her evasive pivots.. Essentially, she’s good at the two extremes- a very good point boxer at range and a solid, rough, mauling presence in the clinch, but vulnerable when moving between the two.
Serrano is much more classically-pro in her style: an aggressive-but-composed pressure fighter, closing distance behind a jab and throwing combinations to body and head from there. She’s hittable, but dangerous in exchanges precisely because, unlike Taylor, she’s rarely ever off-balance when throwing, and she’s good at working body and head (Taylor will do both, but usually not in the same exchange, whereas Serrano is more consistent working up-and-down). She could, however be accused of lacking a little bit in variety, since she throws mostly at one pace and doesn’t do an awful lot beyond the basics to set those shots up. She also probably isn’t as fast as Taylor, especially in handspeed.
The battle, then, will most likely be won and lost on who can keep the fight where they need it the most. If Serrano can keep marching forward such that Taylor has to consistently back out and reset at a pace she’s not comfortable with, she’ll hamper that speed advantage and keep her off balance, but if Taylor can keep those mid-range and pocket exchanges to a minimum she may have the advantage. A fairly likely pattern is that Taylor may start off the better but Serrano’s less energy-intensive style lets her take over more as the fight goes on.
Some details to note: Taylor’s jab. Mikela Meyer noted in a recent article that she doesn’t use it much. I don’t think that’s quite true but what is is that if Taylor throws a jab it’s almost an empty threat- she rarely throws combinations behind it, and when she does combo she usually leads with the back hand. If Serrano figures out the timing on that she could close space a lot more easily.
Conversely, though, Serrano is a fighter who does use strength and power as part of her toolset, and as she’s the one coming up in weight for this fight, she’s never fought anyone as big as Taylor of this skill level. That could affect her ability to impose herself.
All in all, this is just a terrifically matched contest that could go either way.
A strong undercard for this show, too. The main attraction is a solid veteran matchup at 154lbs as Jesse Vargas takes on Liam Smith. Both men will be there to throw down, and the winner may be thinking of one last run at a world title shot, so the stakes are high. Should be good. There’s also another women’s unification bout, with Franchon Crews Dezurn taking on Elin Cederroos at super-middleweight. Beyond that, there’s an array of prospects and rising talent, with Austin Williams, Galal Yafai, Rheshat Mati and Skye Nicolson all featuring.
Shakur Stevenson vs Oscar Valdez
The other show of the evening is… well, also a great event. It’s not for all the belts, but these two are widely seen as the two top dogs in the super-featherweight division and will be throwing down for the no1 spot. Valdez is, obviously, the more experienced pro of the two, having first won a world title in 2016 at featherweight and defended it six times before moving up and working his way the 130lb division, where he now holds the WBO belt too having upset Miguel Berchelt for the title. Stevenson is the rising star, a blue-chip prospect with p4p aspirations but some things to prove. A comfortable win here would be a solid step towards achieving that ambition, but Valdez isn’t going to just get out of his way.
A lot of the intrigue here is that we can’t quite be sure how either fighter is going to come out. Valdez made his name as a pressure-fighting slugger at 126lbs, but he boxed Berchelt on the back foot and mixed up the gameplans in his subsequent (controversial) win over Robson Conceicao, where he came back to a more aggressive gameplan after struggling to do anything with Conceicao at range early on. Stevenson is obviously known as an outboxer for preference, but in recent fights has shown some indication that the tag of being a boring point-picker has been starting to irritate him, and against Jamel Herring he made substantial improvements in his work on the front foot and throwing volume.
Realistically, you’d think that Valdez will spend most of the time trying to press, since he isn’t going to win a straight boxing match with Stevenson, but he also isn’t really going to win by just bombing on and throwing haymakers, so he’ll have to mix it up - especially since as a smaller guy there’s a reason he adopted a less physical approach when he moved up a division in the first place. He’ll have to move intelligently, pushing forward but ready to disengage at angles and keep Stevenson resetting. If the younger man does have a flaw he needs to keep working on, it has been that his movement can get overly twitchy and bouncy and result in him being too straight-lined on exits from exchanges- even in his excellent performance against Herring- so Valdez’s best bet is probably to push in, hope to make him jump back, then step out at an angle and re-engage.
For his part, Stevenson will hopefully have been working on standing that ground in the center of the ring, and we’ll see more throw-then-disengage than his previous tendency to barely engage at all, just poking his way to victory, which was at its most blatant in his earlier fight against Jeremia Nakathila. For him, possibly the biggest issue will be standing by the newer instincts he’s been working on when under pressure, always a test of a developing fighter. If he can do that, he should win, with too much speed and accuracy for Valdez, though it shouldn’t be easy (and if it is we can get very excited about his future).
The undercard here also features a lot of rising talent, with Keyshawn Davis, Andres Cortes and Raymond Muratalla all on the card. Olympic silver medalist Davis in particular is one with big things in his future.