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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Vincent Whelan

Former Katie Taylor rival seeks revenge as she promises she'll win rematch

Add one more name to the list of beaten opponents now piping up in the hopes of getting another crack at Katie Taylor.

Firuza Sharipova, who lost a unanimous decision only a few months ago in December, has added her voice to the many fighters chomping at the bit to share the ring with the Bray woman again.

In fairness to the 27-year-old Kazakh, it was quite a respectful call-out as she shared a photo from Taylor and Amanda Serrano's weigh-in with the accompanying message:

"Today was one of the best fights in the history of women's boxing between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano, in which my rival Katie Taylor won.

"I am proud to have fought five-time lightweight title holder Taylor on equal terms and I will seek a rematch.

"Now I intend to prepare better and beat her this time.

"Sofya Ochigawa used to be on my list of most desirable opponents, but now Amanda Serrano has been added to them. Big respect to both Taylor and Serrano for this fight!"

However, try as she might it's hard to envision her being the lucky one to secure another lucrative night with Taylor.

Their bout was a fairly scrappy affair and actually led to the prevailing consensus going into the Serrano fight that Katie's skills were declining even though the 35-year-old still clearly won.

Another high-profile adversary to campaign for a rematch in recent days is American Jessica McCaskill.

She irritated plenty of Irish viewers as part of DAZN's broadcast team on Saturday night for her fairly blinkered commentary on how the fight was unfolding.

In addition to this, she gave Taylor little credit while previewing the Madison Square Garden headliner on the Second Captains podcast.

Any and all efforts by the likes of her, Sharipova and whomever else though are almost certain to prove fruitless as the clear-cut best option is a rematch with the Puerto Rican in Croke Park.

Both sides were receptive to the idea in the immediate aftermath of their historic war - the first time a women's bout has ever been the main event at the iconic New York venue.

With Taylor never having had the opportunity to box professionally in Ireland before, the prospect of her selling out Croker is already fast gaining momentum particularly since the newly compressed inter-county GAA calendar now means the Dublin stadium should be freely available for much of September.

At the post-fight press conference, Taylor said: "We all want to see the best vs the best. Yeah, absolutely, a rematch would be absolutely phenomenal.

"If it was in Dublin, we could sell out Croke Park, if you think the atmosphere was special here tonight, imagine the rematch in front of 80,000 people in Croke Park. Absolutely amazing."

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