James Cox
Katie Taylor's fight with Amanda Serrano on May 20th is set to take place at Dublin's 3Arena instead of Croke Park, according to her promoter Eddie Hearn.
Taylor had hoped for a fight at GAA HQ for her homecoming bout, however, talks appear to have hit a roadblock due to the costs of staging a fight at the 82,300-seater stadium.
“The cost of hire, the cost of everything involved with the event is three times nearly more than staging it at Wembley Stadium,” Hearn told journalist Ariel Helwani on his show The MMA Hour.
"It's unbelievable, it's so frustrating," Hearn added.
“People will just tweet me and go, ‘Shut up Hearn, just do it anyway.’ It doesn’t work like that, it’s a business. Ultimately, Katie Taylor has her financial demands for this fight, so does Amanda Serrano, and we want to make sure we deliver them that.
“But we’re so far out on that possibility with the cost of running that show, and we’re out of time in terms of delivering that date to the broadcaster that we’ve got to move.
It’s frustrating, but at the same time I promised Katie Taylor we’d be in Ireland for her next fight.
“Now we’ll be in a big arena in Dublin, subject to Serrano winning and subject to tying up a deal, and then hopefully in September we revisit Croke Park."
The Matchroom Boxing boss added: “It’s frustrating, but at the same time I promised Katie Taylor we’d be in Ireland for her next fight, it will be the most sensational atmosphere wherever we are, but we’ll see what happens on Saturday night.”
The 3Arena can hold 9,000 fans.
Serrano is fighting Erika Cruz for the world featherweight title on Saturday, and a win there will confirm her rematch with Taylor.
Croke Park administrators are set to "robustly" give their side of the story, following Hearn's claims, according to the GAA.
