Taylor and Serrano are getting paid, but what about the rest of women’s boxing?
Credit to Author: Andreas Hale| Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2024 15:11:55 EST
AS THE FINAL seconds ticked off the clock at New York’s Madison Square Garden, two women slugged it out to a roar from the raucous sold-out crowd of 19,287 crammed into the arena.
“It was so loud that I couldn’t hear the bell,” Katie Taylor told ESPN in late October about her historic boxing encounter with Amanda Serrano on April 30, 2022, for the undisputed lightweight championship. Taylor would go on to win the widely acclaimed affair by split decision, but the outcome wasn’t nearly as important as the occasion. It would be the first time two women headlined a boxing card in the 140-plus-year history of the Garden.
For the first time, they were not only seen but also paid a reported seven figures.
Taylor vs. Serrano was originally booked for May 2, 2020. However, the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered those plans. As the world slowly opened up, an effort was made to schedule the fight for August 2020 but without fans in attendance. Serrano — then promoted by DiBella Entertainment — pulled out of the fight after reportedly receiving an offer of nearly $300,000 from Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn, who promotes Taylor.
Hearn was unavailable for comment to ESPN.
The fight between two of the best women in the sport was thought to be a dream that would never come to fruition until an unlikely entity arrived on the scene: Jake Paul.
The YouTuber-turned-prizefighter, along with Nakisa Bidarian, former Chief Strategy Officer and CFO of the UFC, entered the fight game with Most Valuable Promotions. They made Serrano their first client and swiftly went to work to resuscitate a fight with Taylor.
“Our first priority was to make sure the best women were fighting each other,” Paul told ESPN of his early plans for the promotion that was established in 2021. “We made sure to pay the women more than they ever had been paid.”
Serrano’s profile grew significantly with Paul’s massive social media presence, and a fight with Taylor stood to be far bigger than it was pre-pandemic.
“Katie Taylor was the fight that we wanted to make happen and use it as a launching pad for women’s boxing,” Bidarian said in a 2022 interview with ESPN. “To bring an enormous amount of attention to it, and hopefully they put on a great show that leads to further fan interest in the sport.”
The promoters eventually came together to orchestrate the biggest fight in the history of women’s boxing. Instead of fighting without fans in attendance, they chose New York’s Madison Square Garden.
The event was a rousing success at the box office and in viewership, with 1.5 million people watching on DAZN, the most-watched female-headlined boxing broadcast in history. More importantly, the occasion also marked the first time that two women headlining a fight card each earned seven-figure fight purses.
“Now these women have something to look forward to,” Serrano told ESPN. “If we could do it, they certainly can too.”
Considering it took Serrano, a future Hall of Famer, over a decade and 40-plus fights for a seven-figure payday, the idea that one fight can alter the course of boxing history sounds like a dream more than a reality.
“Before I was on the verge of retiring. I was like, there was no light at the end of the tunnel,” Serrano told ESPN. “We were getting paid very bad. You know, I’ve expressed that I fought, being a multiple division world champion, for $4,000, $5,000, which is not fair.”
On Friday, Taylor and Serrano will face off again as chief support for Paul’s heavyweight clash with legendary Mike Tyson, who is 58 (Netflix, 8 p.m. ET).
The rematch will introduce women’s boxing to a significantly larger audience. Netflix reported 282.7 million worldwide subscribers at the end of the year’s third quarter. By comparison, DAZN reportedly had 60 million premium subscribers worldwide in 2023.
“Our hope is that this is the most viewed women’s sporting event in U.S. history,” Bidarian told ESPN.
But will their success trickle down to other women in the sport?
“I think, even from the sponsorship side of things, hopefully we have more endorsement and opportunities,” Taylor told ESPN. “But I think that women’s boxing’s got to be viewed again on a bigger scale after this fight. … After the Madison Square Garden fight, everybody was talking about that fight for weeks afterwards, and I think it’s definitely gonna be the same after [Friday].”
THE FIRST MEETING between Taylor and Serrano showcased women’s boxing at its best. But while both fighters gained the most from the historic fight, the rest of women’s boxing has yet to see their success trickle down to the rest of the sport.
“They’re just aberrations,” Lou DiBella, longtime promoter of women’s boxing, told ESPN. “The two girls in this fight, to my understanding, are getting the two biggest purses that women have ever gotten. But it don’t mean s—. It’s not a precedent for anything. It’s not going to help the girls that are getting $15,000 and $20,000 purses for title fights right now. It’s not gonna help the poor girls that are getting $5,000 a fight and working, you know, working four jobs and three jobs literally.
The financial floor for boxers starting their career is low for men and women. However, the earning potential for men outpaces women by a significant amount.
“I have always said that 99% of male boxers are fighting at the poverty level or below,” DiBella said. “For women, it’s 99.99%. Nobody’s making a living. You can be a female world champion, do the math, if the marketplace is paying $20,000, $25,000 a fight and a champion fights twice in a year, how do you support yourself?
Although DiBella is happy for Taylor and Serrano — he promoted the latter for most of her career, until 2021 — his concern is less about the fighters and more about the networks and promoters who have yet to invest substantially in women’s boxing.
“There’s not a single boxing series for women, nor has there ever been one,” DiBella said, citing that shows for up-and-coming fighters such as “ShoBox: The New Generation” no longer exist. “There is no place for a woman who comes out of the amateurs or competes in the Olympics to develop her talent. There’s no opportunity even for a female world champion right now. They’re fighting in obscurity.”
Claressa Shields, the first American to win consecutive Olympic gold medals (2012, 2016) in men’s or women’s boxing, has been on the front lines for equal pay in women’s boxing. Even though she turned pro after arguably the most decorated amateur career in American boxing history, Shields has struggled to earn close to what her male counterparts are making. After she earned $50,000 in her professional debut in 2016, it took Shields four years to see a $300,000 payday in her 2020 fight against Ivana Habazin despite breaking the record for becoming a two-weight world champion in the fewest professional fights, previously held by Ukrainian two-time Olympic gold medalist Vasiliy Lomachenko. By comparison, Lomachenko made a reported $631,000 in his second professional fight, when he fought for a world title against Orlando Salido.
“[Amanda and Katie] are with promoters who have deep pockets and are willing to bet on them,” Shields told ESPN. Shields is promoted by Dmitry Salita and made her first million-dollar payday in 2022 against rival Savannah Marshall in her 13th pro fight. “I haven’t had a Floyd Mayweather backing me, so I have had to build my brand on my own outside of the ring. I have a blueprint on how to make a million dollars within a few years, but I don’t know what the blueprint is to make what Amanda and Katie are making except that they have somebody who has that type of money and wants to invest in them.”
For years, Serrano toiled in relative obscurity and financial strife, working a full-time job as a boxing trainer, fighting in front of sparse crowds despite being a world champion in an unprecedented seven weight classes. For comparative purposes, Mikey Garcia was a world champion in four weight classes and earned $220,000 when he won his first major world title against Salido in 2013, $375,000 when he defeated Dejan Zlaticanin in 2017 for a world title in a third weight class and $1,000,000 in his next fight against Adrien Broner later that year.
Paul and Bidarian took notice of Serrano’s exceptional talent and realized that there was an underserved market for women’s boxing. Serrano took a chance on the YouTuber in signing with Most Valuable Promotions in 2021. Never in her wildest dreams did she believe that her career would take off the way it did, monetarily and in notoriety.
“I had no expectations when I signed with MVP,” Serrano said about rolling the dice on her career with a 20-something YouTuber with no previous boxing experience.
Paul and Nakisa sold her on an untruth of sorts.
“Jake and Nakisa told me that they would make me a millionaire within a year when they signed me,” said Serrano. “They lied. They made me a millionaire in six months.”
As the 36-year-old heads into the biggest fight of her career, she understands that this fight is bigger than her seven-figure purse.
“We are still a work in progress because not all women are making the money that I’m making,” Serrano said. “Katie and I are making seven figures fighting each other, but we’re not making that kind of money if we fight someone else. We need more promoters and more networks putting money up for women’s boxing.”
EBANIE BRIDGES AND Cherneka “Sugar Neekz” Johnson have won world championships and amassed significant social media followings that would have people believe they are already raking in substantial paydays. However, nothing could be further from the truth for the Australian boxers.
“I got offered a world title fight in 2020 for f—ing $3,000,” Bridges, who was promoted by Hearn for six of her 11 fights, told ESPN. “That was only four years ago. Good luck trying to get $10,000 for a world title fight as a female. But then you go from that to Amanda and Katie making seven figures and now fans think I’m into that kind of money.
“Do you think if I made that much money I’d have an OnlyFans? I wouldn’t need to have another job like just about every other female fighter out there.”
Johnson is a two-division world champion with nearly half a million followers on Instagram. She, too, has supplemented her income with OnlyFans — an internet subscription service for content creators — because she fights so infrequently that she cannot rely on boxing as a primary source of income.
“I’m just living off of my OnlyFans at the moment,” Johnson, who is promoted by DiBella Entertainment, told ESPN. She made “just over $20,000 AUD [almost $13,000]” for her fight with Nina Hughes, where she won the WBA women’s bantamweight title in May. It will be her only fight in 2024.
“You can’t survive off one fight a year getting paid what we are,” Johnson said. “It’s less than minimum wage. Sometimes I think that I’d be better off working at Kmart. I’m lucky enough to have the OnlyFans support and sponsorship, or else I would have to be working a full-time job, which would prevent me from putting the right amount of effort into my training.”
Both have struggled to stay active due to a lack of opponents and the low paydays. Bridges’ last fight was in December 2023, while Johnson has fought only twice since October 2022. Bridges has opted to go the free agent route and is currently taking a hiatus from boxing as she is expecting her first child early in 2025.
“I want to fight, and everyone asks when I will be fighting again, but the problem is that there is no show to be put on,” Johnson said. “I am a world champion who wants to defend her title and is always ready to fight. But nobody will get us together, pay us what we are worth and make these great fights happen.”
Johnson is not optimistic that Taylor-Serrano 2 will have an immediate effect on women’s boxing because the issues are deeper than fighter pay.
“It does bring more eyes to women’s boxing, but you know that they are both supported by great promoters who are actively promoting them as individuals,” Johnson said. “They are willing to invest money in them to get these opportunities to fight on the big cards. We strive to be in that position, but how do we get there and what support do we need to get that exposure and the financial backing?”
And with those limited opportunities came limited ways to earn income.
” …I truly believe that [Taylor and Serrano] purses will exceed the combined purse made by every other woman boxed in the world this year. It’s a complete vacuum. It’s just a singular circumstance. It’s nice for Amanda, and it’s nice for Katie. It’s got nothing to do for Cherneka Johnson or Shurretta Metcalf or Ebanie Bridges; it doesn’t flow down to all the women that are struggling to get paid fairly around the world.”
While Bridges and Johnson turned to OnlyFans, both made it clear they would much rather compete inside a boxing ring.
“I like to hit people, and that’s the God to honest truth. I don’t fight for money. I make more outside of the ring than I do in it.” Bridges said. The Australian revealed that she made her first million on OnlyFans in eight weeks. “But I have goals to be a world champion. I enjoy this. It feels good when I get to smash someone. But my career has been s—, to be fair. I don’t get to fight as much as I want to.”
Johnson echoes those sentiments.
“You are constantly waiting for your name to be called, but what are you preparing for when everything is so uncertain?”
IF PAUL AND Bidarian are true to their word, Most Valuable Promotions will provide women’s boxing the platform to thrive and pay women what they are worth.
“We plan to sign 40-plus fighters in the next year, and you are going to see a vast majority of them are women because we think that’s where the real opportunity is,” said Bidarian, who has six fighters currently signed to MVP. “We aren’t geniuses; we just have a different perspective. I came from the UFC and understood the power of women in combat sports, while Jake is a 27-year-old marketing genius and disrupter.
“It’s a matter of having a roster of talent that you can work with to have a consistent product and a regular cadence of events around women’s boxing.”
When asked about her thoughts on the MVP plans, Shields takes a wait-and-see approach.
“I mean that is yet to be seen,” Shields said. “I mean if he [Paul] wants to sign other women’s boxers and help build their brand and give them opportunities, that is great for women’s boxing, I think, and it should go well. It’s not about if I believe it or not, just [to wait until] next year, we will see if he do that.”
Bidarian’s time in the UFC during the rise of Ronda Rousey opened his eyes to the potential star power of women competing in combat sports. Although there is still a pay gap in MMA, it is not nearly as wide as it is in boxing, with the top women earning over six figures per fight. Women in MMA don’t operate under a different set of rules compared with boxing. In the UFC, women and men compete in three 5-minute rounds (five 5-minute rounds for main events and championship fights), whereas women in boxing are still pushing to fight 3-minute rounds like their male counterparts and 12 rounds rather than 10 for title fights.
Promoters and boxers alike have agreed rules are a factor when it comes to equal opportunities. In 2022, Chantelle Cameron penned an essay for ESPN, saying, “We are not going to be paid the same as men, or get paid close to the men, if we are doing fewer rounds and two-minute rounds. We are doing half the work really if we are doing 10, two-minute rounds instead of 12, three-minute rounds.
“If you are boxing in a six-round fight, you are not going to get paid the same as if you were boxing in a 12-round fight. The same goes for the length of rounds — we are not going to get paid the same as men so long as we box two-minute rounds.”
Top Rank’s Bob Arum told ESPN in 2021 that if women’s fights were contested at three-minute rounds he believed it would increase excitement in the fights and that he “would sign a number of women.”
In October 2023, more than two dozen women’s fighters — including Serrano, Chantelle Cameron, Seniesa Estrada, Mikaela Mayer, and Hall of Famers Ann Wolfe, Holly Holm and Christy Martin, among others — joined together in a statement asking for an opportunity to fight 12 3-minute rounds for championship fights.
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“As women, we have had to fight inch by inch to earn the same equity and respect freely awarded to men. In our sport, we have made progress, but there is still far to go,” the statement read. “For too long, we have been underpromoted and undercompensated.
“That is why today, we stand together with the desire and dedication to have the CHOICE to perform on the same stage, with the same rules, as men in professional boxing. We have earned the CHOICE of 3 minute rounds, with 12 rounds for championship fights to demonstrate our skill and greatness.”
Taylor believes they have made great ground in the past few years but also believes it’s not enough.
“My first fight in comparison to what I’m making now is obviously miles apart,” Taylor said. “But it’s not good enough if just a few girls are making the big money, it has to be all round; all the world champions have to be making a significant amount of money. And so, I do hope that that brings more opportunities like that. I don’t like the fact me and Amanda are just making all the money; that’s not good enough. We want every champion out there to have an opportunity to make big money.”