Madison Square Garden hosted a historic boxing match headlined by 2 women

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Some of boxing's most iconic moments have happened at New York's Madison Square Garden. The fight of the century, Muhammad Ali versus Joe Frazier, was at the Garden. Rocky Marciano versus Joe Lewis was also there.

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

And this past weekend, for the first time in its history, the Garden hosted a boxing match headlined by two women, and it sold out.

MARTIN: Ireland's Katie Taylor and the USA's Amanda Serrano, known as the Pride of Puerto Rico, are the No. 1 and 2 pound-for-pound best fighters in the world, respectively. And the matchup did not disappoint.

(SOUNDBIGTE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JESSICA MCCASKILL: Katie taking some big shots here. Not...

TODD GRISHAM: But she's landing some, too.

MCCASKILL: She is. She is.

(CHEERING)

MCCASKILL: Both fighters are spent.

GRISHAM: A fight worthy of the occasion. They fought for history. And they're making history.

MCCASKILL: Katie goes down.

GRISHAM: Katie's knees buckle. Oh, my word.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL RINGING)

MARTÍNEZ: In the end, Taylor won a close split decision over Serrano.

MICHAEL ROTHSTEIN: When there's any event that has a lot of hype, very rarely does it live up to it. The fight not only lived up to it; it possibly exceeded it.

MARTIN: ESPN's Michael Rothstein there.

ROTHSTEIN: Women's boxing has always been not all that seen. It's been on, I wouldn't say, the outer fringes of the sport, but it definitely doesn't have the same level of attention, definitely level of pay as men who are fighting in the sport.

MARTÍNEZ: In time, Taylor versus Serrano at the Garden may be remembered as the night that all of that began to change. Perhaps Serrano summed it up best after the fight.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

AMANDA SERRANO: Look at this crowd. Women can sell. Women can fight. And we put on a hell of a show.

(SOUNDBITE OF SELLS BEATS' "STORMZY LONDON") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.