Katie Taylor recently beat Amanda Serrano (Image: Getty Images for Netflix © 2024)
Katie Taylor has officially relinquished her WBC lightweight title, just weeks after triumphing over Amanda Serrano on the vs undercard.
As a result, Caroline Dubois being officially declared the WBC lightweight champion, following a decision by the President Mauricio Sulaiman at the sanctioning body’s annual convention in Hamburg. Taylor hasn’t stepped into the ring at 135lbs since her victory over Karen Carvajal more than two years ago. The Irish boxing sensation then chose to move up to 140lbs to face Chantelle Cameron, with whom she exchanged wins.
Dubois, who was the WBC’s interim lightweight champion, has been lobbying for her chance at the full championship belt for quite some time. Recently, Sulaiman sent a message to Taylor’s team indicating that a decision on the matter would be made shortly. Following the recent convention, the Irish star decided to give up the title, resulting in Dubois being promoted to full world champion. Caroline secured the interim title after a unanimous points win over Maira Moneo in August.
The undefeated boxer is now set to make the first defence of her gold strap on January 11 against former world title challenger Jessica Camarain in Sheffield. ‘Sweet Caroline’ expressed her elation earlier today, stating: “It is a great honour to be elevated to full WBC World Champion and to have WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman present me with the belt. It’s always been my dream to become world champion, and this is just the start of the journey for me. I look forward to defending my WBC World Title on January 11th in Sheffield.”
Following the news, Ben Shalom, BOXXER founder and CEO, added: “We would like to thank WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman and the board of governors for upgrading Caroline. The WBC Lightweight Title is active again, and in Caroline, the WBC has a champion who can rule for many years to come. We are only just starting to see her true potential. We believe Caroline will become the future face of women’s boxing.”
Meanwhile, the boxing community is abuzz with speculation about what lies ahead for Katie Taylor. Despite approaching her 38th birthday in July, promoter Eddie Hearn has disclosed that Taylor remains determined to compete at the highest level. Hearn shared his thoughts with Off The Ball: “How much have we talked about it over the years and, like if there was ever a time…I’ve actually said this before, to be fair,” he said. “But we’re in November now, that gives you enough preparation for a summer event at Croke Park.”
“We’ve just seen the biggest female fight of all time in front of the biggest audience of all time. It’s like, surely…and I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think it’s 100 per cent guaranteed that Katie Taylor will fight again. I’m sure she will, but it’s going to take something pretty special and unique. We had a long call with her last night with (her manager) Brian Peters and she was full of (enthusiasm). In the training room after (the fight), it kind of felt like if she was to turn around now and say, ‘that’s it for me’, I’d actually be extremely happy in a way that you could bow out on a night like that.”
“But then she said, ‘there’s a few things, though, that I’d really like to do’. I said, ‘what’s that’, and she said, ‘Obviously I’d like to fight at Croke Park and I’d like to fight in Las Vegas. Then you start thinking, wow. I know there’s been a lot of interest from the Madison Square Garden guys because of the first Serrano fight to do something possibly in the Sphere in Las Vegas, which would be so iconic for her career – and Croke Park. But I just think if it’s Chantelle (Cameron) back at the 3Arena or it’s Amanda Serrano back at MSG, I’m not sure that’s necessarily going to really excite her in the same way that doing something different would.”