Amanda Serrano wore a headguard to mock Katie Taylor after being left furious with headbutts in their second meeting.
Taylor and Serrano came face-to-face again as they met at a launch press conference in New York, to promote their third clash on July 11.
Serrano was left unhappy with the result of the second fight, as Taylor picked up a victory on the scorecards.
But the Puerto Rican was forced to deal with a nasty cut from the fourth round as a result of an accidental headbutt from her rival.
After the clash, Serrano complained of Taylor’s headbutting, which she later retracted with focus on the trilogy.
Although in a move similar to one of her promoter Jake Paul, she began to play mind games.
The challenger turned up to the event in headgear, as if protecting herself from further damage.
It was a comical move which had the boxing fraternity talking as they sat down to face-off.
Usually, huge respect ensued between the hugely talented fair, but a fiery argument did break out during their verbal exchanges.
Serrano, an advocate of three-minute rounds for the women’s side of the sport, accused Taylor of breaking a handshake agreement to fight under that format.
She said: “Listen, well we shook on it. If you can roll the tapes, we shook on it. She didn’t agree when we went to sign the contract.
“I believe women can do it, we are capable of doing it as you saw and WBC said no, so I had to give up one of my babies.
“So if that’s her choice then that’s her choice, but I believe that women should get the recognition and the equality that the men get.”
Taylor hit back, replying: “I am 2-0 here and I’m in the driver’s seat. That’s only right at the end of the day.
“Amanda needs this fight a lot more than I do. I have a long history of big fights against big names and a line of people queued up to fight me for the payday.
“You need this fight a lot more than I do, Amanda. You know that.
“At the end of the day, I think the point of [you fighting] three-minute rounds was to prove to people that you get more knockouts. How many knockouts did you get in your 12 three-minute rounds? Zero.”
It was surprising trash talk from both fighters, to add another layer to a compelling and historic rivalry.
Both Taylor and Serrano will earn the highest-ever paydays for female fighters, to touch gloves again at the iconic Madison Square Garden.
The event will also see YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul brought up against promoter Eddie Hearn in another verbal battle.
