Jake Paul has stirred the pot by offering Katie Taylor a cool €2m to drop down to featherweight in order to make a rematch with Amanda Serrano happen.
In a nutshell
The YouTuber-turned-boxer, who is back in the ring himself next weekend, was speaking to DAZN when he put forward his and his client Serrano's case as to why any rematch should take place at 126 pounds rather than 135.
He said: "The only reason [the re-match isn't 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.
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"So she’s going to defend them, keep all her belts at 126, and the money is cool and all, but that doesn’t mean anything to Amanda Serrano, she wants to be the unified champ at 126lbs."
"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.
"I think Amanda Serrano won that fight, everyone thinks Amanda Serrano won that fight.
"Katie Taylor, I know you’re watching, why don’t you come down to 126, go against Amanda Serrano in that weight class because she came up nine pounds to fight you. She didn’t look like she was in the same weight class as you that night."
Background
It's an eye-catching offer but unlikely to work since Taylor has never been motivated purely by chasing the biggest purse on offer.
Plus she doesn't need to chase a rematch having been the worthy victor last time out, despite what Paul says.
And having made her home at 135 since going pro, apart from when she went up to 140 for her bout with Christina Linardatou, it would be an unnecessary risk for the Bray woman to drain herself in order to cut down to such a low weight especially since cutting weight notoriously takes more out of older fighters.
Serrano herself is also fighting on Paul's undercard on August 6. She has similarly maintained that she was robbed on the night of her and Taylor's sell-out at Madison Square Garden.
Possible Croke Park bout
Most recently she let it be known she may be willing to run it back at Croke Park after all - but not until next year.
Speaking earlier in the week, the Puerto Rican told BoxingScene.com: “I would go to Ireland. It doesn’t matter where they wanna fight. But right now, I just need to defend my titles.”
The seven-weight world champion was also critical of the two judges that scored the MSG fight in Taylor's favour to give the Bray Bomber a split decision win.
She added: “I scored it 96-94. I think I was more aggressive. I kept coming forward.
"In that fight, Katie Taylor never hurt me. There was a couple times I hurt Katie Taylor.
"But, you know, it’s not Katie Taylor’s fault. It’s the judges. They felt that she won. Two out of the three judges thought that she won.
"But, you know, it’s not losing, it’s learning. After my first loss, I came back and I won [nine straight] fights by knockout. So, I’m assuming you can’t leave it to the judges.”
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