It’s far from a certainty, but Eddie Hearn is interested in having Katie Taylor face Holly Holm or Cris Cyborg next.
In April, Taylor defeated Amanda Serrano by split decision to retain her Ring, WBA, WBC, WBO, and IBF lightweight titles in the biggest female boxing match of all-time. The win moved Taylor to 21-0 professionally and, with no obvious challenges for her left in the world of boxing, Hearn says he’s intrigued by a Taylor crossover event against either Holm or Cyborg.
“There’s two fights that I find really interesting — one is Holly Holm and one is Cris Cyborg,” Hearn said Monday on The MMA Hour. Holly Holm is an excellent boxer. Cyborg can also box, has great power, doesn’t quite have the boxing resume of Holly Holm, but they’re big crossover fights. I think Holly Holm has a fight left with the UFC, which would make that difficult to do. Cyborg, I believe has an agreement with Bellator. However, it does not cross over to boxing. There were only friendly conversations — Cyborg was there at Madison Square Garden — and no negotiations. It is definitely an event that I am interested in, for many different reasons.
“Something different and fun. You get to Katie Taylor’s stage in her career and you start looking at other fights and it’s like, what can you do now? It’s then like “Holly Holm or Cyborg in Vegas?”
Holm is an accomplished boxer in her own right, having been inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame earlier this month, and “The Preacher’s Daughter” remains interested in returning to the squared circle for a bout with Taylor.
But Holm is still under contract with the UFC, which Hearn noted makes that fight more difficult to put together.
Cyborg can pursue boxing fights but is still under contract to Bellator. Rumors began circulating this past weekend that a Taylor-Cyborg fight was in the works. Hearn denied that the rumors were premature. However, he said that exploratory talks about possible fights have been held and that he thinks that such a fight would be huge for Taylor as well as women’s boxing.
“I can say there’s a possibility,” Hearn said. “I think it’s interesting. She’s kind of done everything in boxing, and to bring in that new market to women’s boxing. Cyborg is big and powerful, which I dislike about her fight. Katie would have to go up. She would have to fight above 140, which she can’t really do, but Cyborg has a massive problem fighting Taylor because — she doesn’t mind, but in terms of the fight itself, you’re talking about a pound-for-pound great. Katie has a problem because of the strength of Cyborg. This is what makes the fight so interesting. … She’s going to be 20 pounds heavier, or close to it, on the night [of the fight].
“I just think it’s something different and Katie’s earned the right. It’s not an exhibition, it’s not like we’re just having a joke fight. These women are extremely dangerous and this brings new fans to the sport.”
The other big fight for Taylor right now would be with Serrano. A rematch with Serrano was inevitable, many believed due to the intensity and intimate nature of their first encounter. Hearn said they wanted to see that fight, and that Serrano’s side won.
“Amanda Serrano did not want to fight,” Hearn stated. “There was no amount of money, as we were told, that would get her in that fight, this time around. In particular, likely, due to the fact that the fight was scheduled for Dublin. Nakisa [Bidarian, Serrano’s manager along with Jake Paul] approached us and asked if we would like to rematch. She said, ‘No, we’re not really interested. She’s going to have another fight on Jake’s card.’ We said there’s a lot of money in the rematch [and she said], even if you offered — they gave us a number which I think was well over double the first fight — we still wouldn’t take it.
“It’s disappointing but they may feel that if they lose again it could be a career-ending loss. Whereas they can go out, have a fight on the Jake Paul card, and maybe look at the rematch next year. Disappointing because it was just epic and we’d love to do it again.”
So for now, Hearn is focused on new and interesting challenges for the top pound-for-pound female boxer in the world, including those bouts with MMA royalty.
But at some point in the future, he does believe a rematch between Taylor and Serrano will eventually happen.
“I think we’ll see the rematch one day, because you get to a point where they’ll do the fight on the Jake Paul card and then be like, ‘I just can’t earn 30 percent of what I can earn against Katie Taylor, so let’s just do the rematch.’ Hopefully we can get there.”
