Katie Taylor defends her undisputed women’s lightweight belts against Karen Elizabeth Carabajal in London tonight.
It will be a day short of six months on from her historic win over Amanda Serrano, when the pair became the first women to headline at Madison Square Garden and Taylor defended her status as the best at 135lbs.
A rematch is surely on the cards in the future but for now the 36-year-old’s focus is on Carabajal, who is unbeaten in her 19 professional bouts with two knockouts to her name.
This is the ultimate test though for the Argentine, up against a pound-for-pound great and fighting outside of her home country for the first time.
It’s more than three years since Taylor became undisputed with victory over Delfine Persoon, even if it did come in slightly controversial fashion, and she is heavily fancied to extend her unbeaten record to 22-0 this weekend and set the stage for more high-profile bouts next year.
Back at Wembley Arena, where she made her professional debut in 2016, Taylor has no intention of slowing down.
“It’s hard to believe it’s been almost six years since I made my pro debut there so it’s great to go back now and headline,’ Taylor said. “It’s been an amazing journey so far but there are still lots of great fights out there for me and I’m excited about what’s still to come.”
Martinez lost that belt against Warrington, who puts it on the line in December against Luis Alberto Lopez, earlier this year and will be eyeing another shot at the Brit, while Gill faces the toughest test of his career against the experienced Spaniard.
Popular heavyweight Johnny Fisher is back in action hoping to extend his record to 7-0, while Ellie Scotney looks to take Mary Romero’s European super-bantamweight title.
Before the Bell’ takes place from 4:30pm, with the main event due to start at approximately 10pm. A subscription to DAZN currently costs £7.99 a month in the UK.
This should prove to be a far easier night for Taylor than that thrilling fight against Serrano earlier this year, with the only real danger that she drops her levels knowing she should be far too good for Carabajal.
The Argentine is unbeaten, but the quality of opponents must be factored into that and with just two knockout wins to her name, she’s unlikely to have the power required to slow Taylor down.
All of Taylor’s last eight fights have gone to the cards and despite the gulf in class between the two fighters, that is likely to be the case again with the favourite dominating from start to finish.
A slight drop in intensity from what we saw during the historic bout in New York last time out is almost inevitable on a more low-key night, so a wide points victory is the most probable outcome as Taylor looks to come through it with minimal fuss to set up what she hopes will be a big fight in Ireland next year.
