Katie-From Amateur to Professional World Champion

Katie-From Amateur to Professional World Champion

By Daniel McConnell

A documentary based on decorated Irish amateur turned professional boxer Katie Taylor was released in late 2018. It wasn’t until then I realised what ‘The Bray Bomber’ has actually achieved throughout her boxing career and how important a role she has played for the evolution of women’s boxing.

Katie is arguably responsible for putting boxing on the map for many young girls and women who have been deterred from the sport in the past. Katie represented Republic of Ireland ladies football team from under seventeen to senior level, this was while boxing. You could say that football was a little more acceptable for a girl to grow up playing in the early 2000s, not boxing, that was a strictly men’s game.

Katie focused most of her attention on the amateur ranks of boxing which begun at the 2005 European Amateur Games in Norway. Katie won gold. Competing in the World Amateur Games in the 60kg division Taylor also won a gold medal, which continued throughout her career.

Dominating the European and World Amateur ranks for seven years certainly put her name on the map with Father and long-term Head Coach Peter Taylor by her side.

In 2012, the Taylor’s decided to compete in the London 2012 Olympic Games for the very first time. Katie faced a tough Russian in Sofya Ochigava who gave her a tough test, possibly the hardest in her career to date. However Taylor continued her dominant amateur boxing run and won her first gold Olympic medal. Nicola Adams, Claressa Shields and Katie Taylor all made themselves known for women’s boxing that year.

Throughout 2013-2016 Taylor continued to defend her lightweight crown in the European and World games with the hope to step up into the professional game. This was when Taylor hit rock bottom.

Katie began boxing under the watchful eye of her father and former coach Peter in the 1990s. Pete, who is estranged from wife Bridget, was in his daughter’s corner for a glory-filled ten years as she conquered the amateur game but is no longer by her side for personal reasons. This was a huge adjustment for Taylor, and one that would ultimately lead to her first ever defeat.

Katie was beaten three times in 2016 including a shock quarter-final defeat to Finnish veteran Mira Potkonen in Brazil as she struggled without her father in her corner. Taylor seemed to lose a step and needed a new lease of life. She decided to turn pro.

Katie Taylor signed a multi-fight deal with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing and found new coach Ross Enamait, both fit perfectly like a glove. She won her first pro bout against Karina Kopinska via TKO in the third round, then went 6-0 in her first six fights before getting her first title shot.

Taylor defeated Aregntine Anahi Sanchez via unanimous decision to win the vacant WBA female lightweight title in the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff on the Joshua Takem card. She also became the first women to headline a boxing event when she successfully defended her WBA title against American Jessica McCaskill at the York Hall in 2017.

The next step in her career was when she went on to win the IBF lightweight title over Vitoria Bustos in April 2018 going undefeated with a record of 9-0. However, the Irish boxing sensation wasn’t finished there on her dominant, destructive run.

Taylor defended her titles three times in 2018 against Kimberly Connor, Cindy Serrano and Eva Wahlstrom in Madison Square Garden on December 2018.

It wasn’t all happy smiles in 2018 though. Katie and her father Peter Taylor had reconciled and he was training back in Bray, Wicklow in early 2018 when a masked gun-man enter the building shooting Taylor in the arm and killing Bobby Maessett who was one of the gym owners. This rocked the Taylor family and entire boxing community.

Katie’s next fight is set for the 15th of Match for the WBO lightweight title against 13-0 champion Rose Volante in the US. Can Taylor become a three-time world champion? Can she defend her WBA and IBF titles? Will she face WBC title holder Delfine Persoon to unify the division after? The next chapter will be written on 15th March 2019.