Madison in English is also a feminine name, in Italian it is Maddalena or Matilde, but if we talk about the Madison Square Garden, the Saint Peter of US sport, and boxing, until now everything had to be declined to men. Better: until tomorrow night, to be precise at 1.30 on Sunday, when the world lightweight champion Katie Taylor will defend four titles against the Puerto Rican Amanda Serrano (live tv on Dazn). Twenty thousand spectators, sold out, the story standing to applaud the first two women capable – after 140 years of fighting only for men – to slip into the legend of the most famous sports arena in the world. Pink sport has long since broken the taboo, at the Garden Whitney Houston she sang before the 1999 Women’s All Star Game, and in 1962 Marylin Monroe’s Embodied Femininity in the Curves from there sang the most famous of “happy birthdays”, the one to US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
But in the ring until now the “MSG” had always been a club for men only. Before the spotlight moved to and around Las Vegas, the “Mecca” of boxing had been the 5.6-meter square on which many of the greats and especially Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier had cursed and covered themselves with glory, on 8 March in 1971, in the first of the challenges between the two myths of American boxing. The current Garden, located between 7th and 8th Avenues, above Penn Station, is the fourth in the series, and has hosted everything from the almost always disappointing performances of the New York Knicks to the tennis Masters of the golden years. , at the turn of the 70s and 80s. The first arose in 1879 between Fifth and Broadway, on 23rd Street, and was named after James Madison, the fourth president of the United States. The first boxing match took place on July 17, 1882, when just imagining a match between women was delirium.
The lights, the atmosphere, the history deposited in the name, as well as on the half-century old walls, this time will be the backdrop to yet another event destined to remain in the books. Katie Taylor is the favorite, with 20 wins, 6 knockouts, but Serrano – 60 fights and 30 knockouts – promises to be a tough nut to crack. «Here history is made and all our work will pay off. This challenge goes beyond just women’s boxing, I think it’s the most exciting match in the sport, the most important in all of boxing, ”said Taylor. The original ring was dismantled a few years ago and donated to a museum, now the square is larger (6.1 meters on each side): enough, certainly, to make room for the other half of the sport.