Katie Taylor has found her reputation as a fighter come under heavy debate following her November 15 bout against Amanda Serrano. Though Taylor won the match by unanimous decision, several factors were in play that made the result controversial―specifically Taylor’s use of illegal headbutts several times during the match. Notably, these same illegal tactics by Katie Taylor were recently mentioned by Chantelle Cameron who alleged that the Irish champion had been deliberately using them during their second fight held in November of last year.
Women’s undisputed super lightweight (140 lbs) champion Katie Taylor (24-1, 6 KO’s) is arguably one of the greatest fighters to come out of Ireland. with her accomplishments as a pro making her one of the best female boxers in the history of the sport while her amateur accomplishments remain no less noteworthy.
However, despite her pedigree as a fighter and champion, Taylor has had a penchant the last couple of years for dirty tactics that has largely been ignored. During her rematch with Chantelle Cameron (20-1, 8 KO’s), Taylor’s “dirty boxing” became more evident as she fought in her home country of Ireland―with the referee notably displaying clear favoritism towards Taylor and ignoring the illegal offenses she made during the fight.
This behavior did not subside when Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano (47-3-1, 31 KO’s) fought in a rematch of their 2022 bout, staged as the co-main event of the highly controversial Tyson-Paul card. Captured on live camera’s, Taylor was clearly depicted headbutting Serrano several times, a fact that Serrano herself would mention in her post-fight interview:
“Listen, every time you get a cut, it bothers,” Serrano stated. “You get blood in your eye, it hurts, she [Katie Taylor] kept headbutting me but we knew that from the very beginning from the first fight.
“That’s what they do. It’s not only my fight―she did it with Chantelle Cameron.“
When asked on whether Taylor’s headbutts were intentional, Amanda Serrano responded affirmatively:
“I think [Taylor’s headbutts were] 100% [intentional] cause she does it in every fight,” Serrano continued. “Out of 40-something fights, my first cut ever was [by] Katie Taylor. Like I said, she did it with Chantelle Cameron, and there’s been other fights where I’ve seen her [Taylor] use her head dirty, but it is what it is.“
Chantelle Cameron herself mentioned Katie Taylor’s headbutting and constant holding/clinching in an interview she held last month:
“It was a close fight, and there [were] things in that fight that [was messy],” Cameron told Boxing Social. “There was both holding, both headbutting―well, to be fair, I [wasn’t] holding, I was trying to work out and get out of the holds―but there was so much holding.
“There was headbutting, and yeah, sometimes I was getting a bit dirty because who wants to be standing there and get headbutted and [held]. I was trying to do what I could to win like anyone would do, so as much as the fight was good, it was messy.“
Following both of her previous two fights, Katie Taylor has been alleged by her opponents of headbutting. Notably, both Serrano and Cameron were nursing facial cuts during their last respective fights with Taylor.
Taylor has also been linked with such tactics in the more distant past, particularly following her undisputed lightweight (135 lbs) rematch against Belgian fighter Delfine Persoon (49-3, 19 KO’s) who sustained a broken nose during the fight. Persoon would later claim she received the injury due to a headbutt from Katie Taylor:
“[The broken nose] was the result of a headbutt,” Persoon told Belgian news outlet Nieuwsblad during an interview in 2020. “That [broken nose] severely limited my ability to box how I preferred―with combinations of 3 or 4 punches.“
In another interview with the same outlet, Persoon again mentioned how she received a broken nose due to one of Taylor’s headbutts.
“I broke my nose in the second round due to a headbutt,” said Persoon. “That’s why I had difficulties with breathing and it prevented me from going full throttle. Still, congratulations to Katie Taylor. It is now time for some rest.“
While Amanda Serrano would eventually retract her accusations against Katie Taylor the very next day, she did highlight a clear pattern that has been widely overlooked thus far.
Thus far, Taylor has denied accusations her [illegal] headbutts are deliberate as she would maintain during her post-fight presser that she was not a dirty fighter:
“It just happens sometimes when you’re fighting against a southpaw, especially [when] the fighters come close,” Taylor responded to a question on Amanda Serrano and her team accusing her of [illegally] headbutting. “It was completely accidental. I mean, they’re calling me a dirty fighter and whatever but that wasn’t purposely done.
“And it’s a rough sport. Sometimes you get head clashes, sometimes you have to fight through those things, and this is the fight game.“
