Beating Serrano in New York ‘best moment of my career’ - Katie Taylor

Katie Taylor revelled in the “best night” of her career after showing immense resilience to narrowly outpoint Amanda Serrano in an enthralling battle at a packed Madison Square Garden.

A fight branded as the biggest in the history of women’s boxing justified the billing as the momentum swung both ways, with Taylor soaking up a brutal onslaught from her opponent in the middle rounds.

The Bray woman was rocked on multiple occasions and seemed on the verge of being stopped but she showed terrific composure thereafter and used every ounce of her experience to finish strongly.

Two judges scored the fight in her favour 97-93 and 96-93, with a third plumping for Serrano 96-94, handing Taylor a split-decision win as she retained her status as undisputed lightweight champion.

Having overcome Serrano, a nine-time world champion in seven divisions, in a cacophonous atmosphere in front of a sell-out 19,187 crowd, the London 2012 gold medallist believes she is at her zenith.

“I had to dig deep in there, I had to produce a career-defining performance to actually win,” Taylor said at a post-fight press conference. “We definitely got the best out of each other, that’s for sure.

“Everybody was talking about this as the biggest fight in women’s boxing history, but I think it actually exceeded everything that people were talking about.

“This was a special, special moment. It was the best night of my career. I wasn’t sure if anything could reach my Olympic gold medal moment, but that was absolutely the best moment of my career.”

The first women’s bout to headline New York’s famed venue, which staged the ‘Fight of the Century’ between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali in 1971, will go do down as one of the best contests of the year.

But the