Approximately one week prior to Katie Taylor’s undisputed lightweight title defense against Karen Carbajal, the latest copy of The Ring magazine began to materialize on newsstands and inside mailboxes. For those of us who still treasure physical media, the periodical was accompanied by news of a most unwelcome sort by way of a proclamation that this would be the last edition of the century-old Bible of Boxing that would be made available in print format.
After 100 years, dating back to its inaugural February 1922 issue, The Ring will continue from this point forward only as downloadable digital content, another sad death rattle which is making the agonizing demise of print media all the more depressing and impossible to ignore. Boasting a back catalog in excess of 1,200 issues, a paltry total of three female prizefighters have been depicted on its front cover. The first was Cathy ‘Cat’ Davis in 1978, followed nearly four decades after the fact by a still-amateur Claressa Shields who had just won her second consecutive Olympic gold medal in 2016.
Katie Taylor etched her name in the history books on April 30 courtesy of her split decision victory over Amanda Serrano in the headlining bout at a sold-out Madison Square Garden. The following month’s issue of The Ring bore an image of Katie posing with her armful of championship belts on the front, the magazine’s own coveted strap featured prominently among her collection. Though we couldn’t have known it at the time, Taylor made history yet again as the last woman to grace the Bible of Boxing’s cover. In a tangible edition you can hold in your hands and flip through and place on your bookshelf, and will stand the test of time and technology, for whatever that’s worth. To me, the value is incalculable and there is no acceptable conversion rate.
Eddie Hearn’s initial post-Serrano proposition for Taylor involved a homecoming rematch at Ireland’s 82,000-seat Croke Park in September. The featherweight titleholder, however, opted to seek out unification opportunities in the 126-pound division. The names of Holly Holm and Cris Cyborg were subsequently conjured as potential crossover rivals for Katie, with nothing progressing past the speculative stage in either case.
Therefore, returning to Wembley Arena on Saturday night for the second time since making her professional debut there by scoring a third-round TKO over Karina Szmalenberg six years ago, Taylor successfully defended her undisputed lightweight crown for the seventh time with a unanimous decision win over Karen Elizabeth Carbajal.
This was Carbajal’s first business trip to Wembley, or anywhere outside her native Argentina for that matter. Previously unbeaten in 19 bouts, the 32-year-old Carbajal was nevertheless an unranked anomaly with only two stoppages accounting for her seemingly impressive victory tally and none of those wins having occurred against noteworthy opposition. In fact, she had fought only three prior ten-rounders, all of them regional title matches opposite Cintia Gisela Castillo, the first two lasting the full distance and the third resulting in a TKO.
Carbajal’s last outing, on April 10, was a six-round unanimous decision over 2-0-2 Lorena Edith Agoutborde. These are hardly the types of eye-popping statistics that would or should warrant world title contention, but of course these things happen and low-risk contenders sometimes slip through the cracks. Taylor herself acknowledged that fights like these are necessary to stay sharp for mega bouts. But taken no less seriously, she made sure to add.
The lanky Carbajal, who was nothing but respectful of, and complimentary toward, Katie in pre-fight interviews, looked to prove that she was no soft-touch by closing distance behind her jab and attempting to counter the much quicker Taylor. Content to sit in the pocket and mix it up with Katie when the opportunity presented itself, Carbajal found herself being bombarded by Taylor’s fast hands but was not without success in these exchanges, timing some nice check hooks despite the fancy footwork and pendulum-like head movement which are among Katie’s trademarks.
Shortly after the two combatants shared a post-fight embrace at center ring, the score totals (100-91, 99-91, 98-92) were read out by David Diamante, to no one’s surprise all overwhelmingly in favor of the reigning, defending undisputed lightweight champion of the world.
Deflecting talk of retirement for quite some time now, Katie recently gave at least a vague indication of envisioning a life beyond the squared circle. “I obviously know I can’t do this forever. I don’t know if I want to take punches for the rest of my life,” confessed the Irish phenom. Don’t start running a countdown clock on her though.
Taylor isn’t shopping for rocking chairs or writing her Hall of Fame speech just yet. “I absolutely love my sport,” she continued. “I love training. I’m not sick of the early mornings and I’m not sick of the cold mornings, the running sessions, the sparring sessions. I genuinely do love my sport.”
Yesterday’s bout may not have been the fight we wanted, but it was the fight we got. If Katie gets her wish, so will all of us boxing fans as well. Taylor made it very clear that her hopes are for her next stop to be at Croke Park early next year and that Amanda Serrano will share the ring with her once again to do what the two of them do best. Fight and make history.
Serrano's response? "Congratulations, Katie. 2023 we dance again!"
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Earlier in the evening, Londoner Ellie Scotney, coming into Wembley hot off back to back wins over former world champions, namely Jorgelina Guanini and Maria Cecilia Roman, improved her pro record to a perfect 6-0 with a narrow points win over Mary Romero, halting the Spanish warrior’s seven-fight win streak.
By virtue of her victory in this action-packed scrap, Scotney wrestled away Romero’s EBU European super-bantamweight title to compliment her own WBA Intercontinental strap, propelling her up the rankings and toward a crack at Mayerlin Rivas, the WBA’s 122-pound world champion. Scotney came into Saturday ranked #5 with Romero occupying the third spot, so it stands to reason that those positions will be reversed at the very least as soon as the WBA super-bantamweight ratings are updated.
Ellie is also currently second in line for a shot at the IBF belt held by Cherneka Johnson, who just toughed out a unanimous decision win over Susie Ramadan in a Melbourne bloodbath.
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Maisey Rose Courtney, a six-time National Champion at the amateur level who has been described as a “boxing prodigy,” made her anticipated debut in the paid ranks at Wembley Arena by pitching a four-round shutout against Hungary’s Judit Hachbold.
An athletic youngster who obviously relished in sports of the rough and tumble variety, Courtney switched gears from football to boxing at the age of eight. With the South London coaches reluctant to humor what they no doubt dismissed as a passing fancy on Maisey’s part, it took her seven years to begin fighting competitively out of Bethnal Green’s Repton Boxing Club, racking up multiple titles along the way.
Courtney is the first female to call the Matchroom Elite Boxing Gym run by head trainer Tony Sims her home base. The flyweight prospect has high hopes of fighting for a world title before her rookie year is over.
For now, that’s all the news that’s fit to print. “All the news that’s fit to download” just doesn’t have the same Ring to it.
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