Can Katie Taylor end an invisible year with the biggest bang of all?
If you watch nothing else from that first fight, look at the clip of the last 30 seconds. Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano had nothing left to give at the end of 10 brutal rounds, but they reached beyond the limits of endurance.
If you were to draw up the shortlist for RTE's annual Sportsperson of the Year award, most would bring up the same names.
Ireland's most successful Olympics means there will be no shortage of contenders. Rhys McClenaghan won last year and an Olympic gold means he has a strong claim to retain his title.
Daniel Wiffen left Paris with two medals - gold and bronze - so he's a contender too and Kellie Harrington retaining her Olympic gold means she is right in the mix.
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Paul O'Donovan could get the nod, as he became world champion in the lightweight single sculls as well as winning his third Olympic medal - and second gold - alongside Fintan McCarthy in Paris.
Ciara Mageean missed out on the Olympics through injury, but her European Championships gold means she has to be part of the conversation.
Bundee Aki recently became an Irish citizen and he was Ireland's best player as they bounced back from World Cup disappointment to win the Six Nations. And, to many, Shane O'Donnell was the shining light of the GAA year, playing a pivotal role as Clare won a memorable All-Ireland.
What of Katie Taylor? She has made the shortlist in eight of the last 10 years, and won the prize in 2020 and 2022. Her first triumph came in 2012, the year that she won Olympic gold in 2012.
Sonia O'Sullivan, with five wins, is at the top of the roll of honour, with both Taylor and Padraig Harrington next with three apiece.
This is a year when we have heard very little from Taylor. And we haven't seen her at all as she hasn't fought in 2024.
But that will change on November 15 in Texas and, if she were to beat Amanda Serrano, a strong case would likely be made for it being her greatest ever achievement.
Why? As with most things, context is hugely important. This will be the second meeting of Taylor and Serrano. The first - at Madison Square Garden on April 30, 2022 - is widely regarded as the best fight between two women of all time.
If you watch nothing else from that fight, look at the clip of the last 30 seconds. Taylor and Serrano had nothing left to give at the end of 10 brutal rounds, but they reached beyond the limits of endurance.
The punches kept coming, the arms kept swinging, neither would give an inch.
When we waited for the verdict, we wondered. It was tight, a hard one to call. As so often in the pro game, one of the judges' scorecards made no sense. Taylor up by four rounds? What?
A split decision but the two words we all wanted to hear - ''and still''.
If it had been judged a draw, few would have argued and the performance of both boxers was remarkable.
In the fifth round, Serrano took Taylor to a place where no fighter had ever taken her before.
Pounding her to the head and the body. Doing damage with nearly every punch. The blood that poured down the Irishwoman's face was the most visible evidence.
A couple of months earlier, in a feat of gamesmanship, Serrano had called for three minute rounds for the fight. It was never going to happen, as that is something for the governing bodies to approve.
But, if that fifth round had lasted three minutes, it's doubtful that Taylor would have survived.
Her comeback was everything we've come to know about her. Brave, bold, audacious, exhilarating.
We get to see them tearing into each other again, but is Taylor the same fighter as she was in 2022? No-one really knows.
There is always a wariness in writing her off, something that was hammered home in her rematch with Chantelle Cameron in Dublin - Taylor's last fight.
Very few tipped her to triumph but the Irishwoman was an emphatic winner, coming up with a performance for the ages.
Every boxer, though, reaches a tipping point, with a slide - sometimes a rapid one - coming afterwards. Was Taylor's tipping point in the rematch with Cameron?
She turned 38 in July - Serrano is two years younger - and she won't have an army of Irish fans in Texas like she had in New York.
It will take something extraordinary for Taylor to win again, but her life has always been about doing the extraordinary. Don't be surprised if she forces herself into contention for Sportsperson of the Year again.
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