Katie Taylor’s fight relegated to less prominent ring

This of all weeks as world tennis splits down the middle over equality of gender and almost 43 years since Bobby Riggs faced Billie Jean King in their battle of the sexes in a nationally televised tennis match, it might have been a well-timed coup to put Katie Taylor's four-round fight with Antrim bantamweight Kurt Walker where people could see it.

Promoted by the IABA along with Paddy Barnes in a Test match against Lithuania, Taylor was relegated to a ring in the High Performance part of the National Stadium, while all the male contests took place in front of a small crowd in the main arena.

Doubtlessly many of the children, who had seen on the IABA’s Facebook page that the biggest female name in world boxing was on the card, had turned up to see her alone.

The fight against Walker was a warm-up for the European, World and Olympic gold medallist’s Olympic Qualifiers next month in Turkey.

But without explanation Barnes fought, David Oliver Joyce fought, Dean Gardiner fought and Stephen Donnelly fought as the card was completed. Eight fights, men only on the main stage and Taylor across the car park in the other building, apparently finished before any of the men began and doing it as she likes doing it, quietly and without fuss.

Shabby excuse

“She had an appointment,” said a brusque official. “She had to go.” That’s a shabby excuse for their headline act. The boxing community sometimes frown on fights between men and women but in Taylor’s case there are simply no Irish women powerful enough, fast enough or technically equipped to test her.

A public bout, as promised, would have framed her ability and shown that as tennis rows over whether women are worth their millions of dollars, here is a female who has transcended her sport, who can step through the ropes as an equal with men, an extremely rare occurrence in any sport.

Taylor fought for her national title for the first time last year after years of achieving walkovers because opponents, who entered the lightweight 60kg class inevitably and predictably, pulled out. In some people's minds it was a health and safety issue. In her training regime she is regularly sparring against not just male boxers but the elite of the Irish team including Barnes and Michael Conlan, both Olympic medallists.

The fight against Walker, an elite boxer, took place over four two-minute rounds, which is the female distance for Olympic bouts. There was no winner declared, which was in keeping with the male bouts of the afternoon. Both Taylor and Walker wore head guards, as did all of the males in the main arena.

The only difference was we didn’t see the Olympic champion.