Katie Taylor looking to unify 135, then face Amanda Serrano in 2019

Badlefthook.com

Irish superstar and WBA/IBF lightweight champion Katie Taylor returns to action on Friday in Philadelphia, facing WBO titleholder Rose Volante on the Farmer-Carroll card, which will stream live on DAZN.

Taylor (12-0, 5 KO) and her team insist they’re not looking past Brazil’s Volante (14-0, 8 KO), whom Taylor describes as “a dangerous opponent with a big right hand,” but the plans are in motion for her to go after even greater glory this year.

If Taylor beats Volante, she’ll be one belt short of fully unifying the 135-pound division. That other belt, the WBC title, is currently held by 34-year-old Belgian Delfine Persoon (43-1, 18 KO), who recently stopped Melissa St. Vil in the seventh round, defending her title successfully for the ninth time since winning it in 2014.

BoxRec list Persoon as the No. 1 women’s lightweight in the world, just ahead of Taylor, and the two are also listed at Nos. 3 and 4, pound-for-pound.

Manager Brian Peters tells ESPN that a Taylor-Persoon unification is “certainly a possibility” for June 1, as part of the Anthony Joshua-Jarrell Miller card at Madison Square Garden.

Taylor, 32, also wants to face Amanda Serrano by the end of this year, which Peters envisions as a headline fight in New York. Serrano (36-1-1, 27 KO) has had a wildly successful pro career, and taken an extremely odd path. She’s won world titles at, in order: 130, 135, 126, 122, 118, 140, and 115. And Peters also mentions a potential fight someday between Taylor and undisputed welterweight champion Cecilia Braekhus (35-0, 9 KO), universally considered the No. 1 fighter in all of women’s boxing, pound-for-pound.

In other words, Taylor and her team are dreaming very, very big, but if you’ve gotten to know Katie Taylor at all over the years, even just through interviews and such, that’s no surprise.