Taylor continues on path to London

BOXING: Back where it all started for Katie Taylor, the Bray boxer seemed at ease

BACK TO where it all started for Katie Taylor. Halloween 2001 and she stepped into the ring with Alana Murphy from Belfast. Few took notice that day of the first official women’s fight to take place in the National Stadium and no sense at all that the teenage boxer from Bray would become more exalted than the venerable arena itself.

How those 11 intervening years have been kind to Taylor and what a trail she has blazed since the first suspicious eyes were cast, some of them not so convinced as they were last night about the sport or her high octane career.

“Yeah, I made history here when I fought Alana back then,” said Taylor after her 25-5 win against Dutch fighter Jessica Belder.

“She’s one of my best friends now, would you believe? She’s still boxing. She’s over in England. The two of us, we made history that day.”

There have been marks set along the way largely by the men; Michael Carruth and his Barcelona gold medal and more recently, three Olympic medals from Beijing; from John Joe Nevin, the first male to win medals at two World Championships, and in Joe Ward we got the youngest, at 17-years-old, to become a European champion.

But Taylor’s gift has been that of a pioneer. She has been setting benchmarks and last night back where she began, she continued her blinkered path towards London.

One of her problems has been to entice quality competition to fight her leading up to the Olympic Qualification event in China in May, the one and only opportunity women boxers have to qualify for the inaugural event this summer over three weight divisions.

Her demeanour and performance, however, suggested Taylor was at ease on the South Circular Road in front of a modest crowd of a few hundred. Her record prior to last night was an almost pristine 82 wins from 84 bouts and that included two shocking decisions. Just over a year ago local champion Denista Eliseeva beat her 5-1 in the Strandja Cup in Pazardji, Bulgaria.

After the fight the referee put Taylor’s arms in the air as the winner and the MC announced her as champion. It was only when the referees’ cards were read that the decision was hastily reversed by shame-faced officials. The affable Eliseeva was embarrassed enough herself to seek out Taylor and apologise.

Dutch lightweight Belder needed no such principled gestures last night. Taylor beat Belder 21-1 last September in Cork and last night too brought her figures to 28 undefeated fights in Ireland. The win was dedicated to her mother Bridget, who was “the big five-0” yesterday. Doubtlessly mother will thank daughter for publicising that information.

Taylor also came into the fight without tapering, having kept up her usual training regime, training twice on Thursday.

“I trained all the way through,” she said. “This was like a training session. It did feel a bit hard going and I was a bit tired in there as well. I was happy enough to hear the final bell.”

Most likely not quite as pleased as Belder after a high tempo first round saw Taylor immediately getting through with combinations and forcing the Dutch girl to back up. The judges called the first round to 5-1 in Taylor’s favour.

And that’s how it unfolded over the four rounds, Taylor using her jab to good effect and frequently finding the target with straight rights. Once again her explosive speed and power went unmatched for the entire fight.

At 12-2 up after the second, she went to 17-3 and finally 25-5. Not a bad score stepping seamlessly into competition from the grind of heavy training.

“Critical, yeah, I though it was a great fight. She was tired in there. I wanted her to fight under fatigue,” said her father and trainer Peter. “We trained twice yesterday. She’s looking in good nick at the moment.”

The three times World lightweight champion will compete again in Cavan tomorrow and then Cork and Dungarvan at the end of the month for her final fight before China.

She then goes into a training camp in Ukraine before travelling to China at the beginning of May.