Katie Taylor will not be fighting on Andy Lee undercard

Katie Taylor has performed a surprise U-turn and will no longer be on the undercard for Andy Lee's World Championship title defence next month.

Only four days ago it had been announced that the amateur European, World and Olympic champion, would be involved in the Thomond Park fight between Lee and Billy Joe Saunders on September 19th.

There had been an added bite to the inclusion with Taylor, who has not been beaten in a championship bout for 10 years and had previously fought on the undercard of Bernard Dunne in The Point in 2009, responding on Twitter to Saunders' offensive comments about women a week earlier.

Yet after several days of toing and froing between Taylor and Lee’s management teams and agreement could not be reached.

Lee's trainer, manager and coach Adam Booth said on Tuesday that; "We believe we did everything we could to make this event happen but unfortunately on this occasion, the outcome was not to be."

While Taylor’s management Devlin Sports released a brief statement on her behalf saying;

"It is with great regret that Katie Taylor will not be taking part on the Andy Lee undercard at Thomond Park on September 19th. We would like to wish Andy all the best."