‘This is a dream for me’ – Katie Taylor meets Mike Tyson for first time at fight launch in New York

The pair were seated alongside each other on the platform at a press conference in the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, New York to mark the launch of the controversial Tyson v Jake Paul professional fight on July 20 which will co-feature a rematch between Taylor and Amanda Serrano.

“This is a dream for me,” said Taylor who revealed she received a call from her manager Brian Peters a few weeks ago to tell her she would be fighting on the same card as Tyson and Paul.

“Last year my family had said to me what do I want before I retire, is there something I want to achieve in the sport or anybody who I want to meet and one of the things I said was that I would love to meet Mike Tyson.

“And here he is beside me, an icon of the sport, a legend of the sport. This is just incredible.

“I fell in love with the sport in the nineties, he was the biggest name if boxing at the time. He was ferocious and super to watch. He is a real historian and I love your knowledge of boxing and love listening to him speaking.

“I just cannot believe I was sitting right beside Mike Tyson now I am pinching myself.”

Tyson replied: “Thank you.”

Serrano who lost to Taylor on a split decision when they clashed in an epic fight in Madison Square Garden in 2022 said she always believed the rematch would take place.

“Katie and my name was always going to be attached to each other no matter what and I glad to be part of this and to be alongside Katie Taylor,” said Serrano.

“She is a great champion and we are going to go out there and have to be a better fight than in the Madison Square Garden.

“She knows how to lose, I don’t want to lose, we both don’t want to lose so we are both going to go out there and give it our all. I never thought I would say I am fighting on a co-main event with Mike Tyson.

“Both these men (Tyson and Jake Paul) have truly inspiring me in my sport. Jake Paul has changed my life and my career,” said Serrano who is managed by Paul.

She admitted that boxing a stone above their normal weight was going to be ‘hard’. “These are the sacrifices my body has to make,” she said.

Paul, whose company Most Valuable Promotion, are promoting the show which will be staged in the Dallas Cowboys’ home stadium in Texas repeatedly described his fight against Mike Tyson as the ‘biggest fight of the 21th century’ because Netflix will show it free of charge to its 750 million subscribers worldwide.

Tickets for the show go on sale on Thursday.