LITTLE POINT in banging on at Pete Taylor and expecting any notes of concern to echo around the ExCel Arena. That Katie could have had a better draw than meeting the winner of Queen Underwood and Natasha Jonas for an Olympic bronze medal commands no more than a tilt of the head and a gentle reminder that the current world champion has both fought and beaten the pair before.
That Taylor fears no one has been indelibly tattooed in boxing arenas around the world and if anything Pete Taylor, without inflating his daughter’s ability, was gently implying that four successive world championships are not won on the foundation of sweating the draw.
Jonas is ranked seven in the world up from her previous 22, Underwood down to 10th from seven and Katie her traditional number one.
“Katie never preferred not to fight anyone,” said Taylor. “Whoever came out, came out. If it had been Sofya Ochigava (world number three and second seed) . . . we don’t mind who we box. At the end of the day she’s a four-time world champion because she’s beaten everyone before.
“You’ve got to beat them all anyway if you’re going to be champion. I think it’s great to because it will enable Katie to show the world what female boxing is all about and it’s not a shoo-in, these competitions are difficult to win. It’s a great platform for her to show her skills off.”
Taylor has decided to stay in London for the next 10 days. She is already in the athletes’ village and sharing a town house with some of the Irish swimming team. She won’t be returning to Ireland before her bronze medal fight on August 6th.
Her relative low profile among the world’s most feted athletes suits the 26-year-old. While few people celebrate being ignored, Taylor does and the athletes’ village has provided a place of relative anonymity. The Taylor house expects Jonas to beat Underwood. Katie fought the British girl a few years ago in Bulgaria and won a tight bout 6-3.
“She (Jonas) is a good girl to box against, a southpaw as well,” he said. “She’s an awkward girl but I think Sofya Ochigaya got the nice end of the draw. She got most of the wild cards.”
Billy Walsh’s thinking was mixed about the numbers that came out of the jar for his five man team.
Bantamweight John Joe Nevin, ranked four and a double world championship medallist was seeded five and missed a bye into the second round by one ranking point. Nevin faces Danish qualifier, Dennis Ceylan and if he progresses will meet the Cuban top seed Lazaro Alvarez in the semi-final. With Nevin’s decorated past there was some consternation as to why he was denied a ranking of four.
“It’s hard to figure out, really,” said the Irish head coach. “Look, the draw is what it is. We have to deal with what’s in front of us. We have very tough opponents and we’ll make it tough for them.”
Both Nevin and captain Darren O’Neill are in this afternoon’s session with middleweight O’Neill facing Nigerian Muideen Akanji, who is unknown to the Irish team.
A bye into the second round for light flyweight Paddy Barnes and flyweight Michael Conlan takes them out of competition for a few days.
“He’s got another week to wait and you know he’s not very patient,” quipped Walsh about firebrand Barnes.
Few people and least of all Barnes can fail to see China’s Zou Shiming’s path converging with his at the semi final stage. Barnes lost to the reigning Olympic Champion 15-0 when the two met in the Beijing semi-final. The good news is that both Barnes and Conlan are just two wins from a bronze.
Adam Nolan makes his Olympic debut on Sunday evening against Carlos Estacio Sanchez from Ecuador. Both boxers are unranked and as with the African Akanj, Sanchez is unknown to the Irish team.
“We have footage of all the opponents in the weight divisions so we’ll go back and research that when we go in. Adam is in great form and he’ll give anyone a good go,” added Walsh.”
Aside from winning the welterweight qualifying tournament in Turkey in April and popping his head up for the first time Nolan is coming in under the radar. For now anyway and before a glove is thrown gloomy, naysaying, pessimism, it’s all in abeyance.
FIRST ROUND DRAW
MEN'S
LIght Flyweight: Paddy Barnes 1st round bye.
Flyweight: Michael Conlan 1st round bye.
Bantamweight: John Joe Nevin v Dennis Ceylan (Den), 2.30pm, today.
Welterweight: Adam Nolan v Carlos Sanchez (Ecu), 10.15pm, tomorrow.
Middleweight: Darren O'Neill v Muideen Akanji (Nig), 3.30pm, today
WOMEN'S
Lightweight: Katie Taylor v Natasha Jonas (GB) or Queen Underwood (USA), August 6th.
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