BOXING AIBA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Johnny Wattersonprofiles Bray's modest three-time world champion, who is now targeting Olympic glory
IT IS only four years ago Katie Taylor won her first World title in New Delhi, India. Back then it seemed such a low-key affair. Although the right noises were made and the 24-year-old dutifully commended, there was little national excitement that Ireland had a unique talent who was setting the benchmark at a global level in the boxing ring.
Four years on and the country has slowly come around to seeing just what an asset Taylor was then and is now and, with the London Olympics in 2012 to host women’s boxing for the first time, she will likely go as Ireland’s main medal prospect – that is, of course, if she gets to London. Businessman Denis O’Brien’s declared sponsorship of her should help that cause. Qualification will be decided in the World Championships of 2012, which will be staged early in the year.
Three successive World Championships are not enough for Taylor to be an automatic entry into the games.
The Bray boxer has ploughed a lonely furrow since her first international win and has had to earn titles around the world and evangelise the sport to an initially sceptical Irish public. Questions were asked about the extent of women’s boxing and some people prejudicially questioned if women should even be allowed box at all.
Taylor was in a unique situation. By the time she had won two world titles and three European Championships few people in Ireland had actually seen her perform, even on television.
For her, it was always a natural sport in which to become interested. She has been immersed in boxing since a child, beginning when she was 12 years old. Her father Peter, who has been the most constant and strongest influence, has been in her corner all the time and he too was an Ireland amateur champion.
As the lone girl in the gym, she was educated in the sport by regularly sparring with male boxers, something she continues to do as a member of the High Performance team in Ireland.
Head coach Billy Walsh is on record as saying that technically, Taylor is the best boxer on a team that contains two Olympic medal- winners in Paddy Barnes and Ken Egan.
She began to win fights and championships almost as soon as she started in the 60kg lightweight division and as a teenager won the first of her European titles in Norway in 2005. That was the beginning of an unrelenting winning streak, which is still in full spate.
In 2006 she retained her European title in Poland before making it three successive wins in Denmark in 2007, having won her first world title the year before in New Delhi. A fourth European title arrived in the Ukraine in 2009.
In March of that year in The O2 arena in Dublin, she broke new ground again with a 27-3 win over three-time Pan American champion Caroline Barry of the United States, while fighting on the under card of the sell-out professional WBA super bantamweight world title fight between Ireland’s Bernard Dunne and Ricardo Cordoba of Panama.
That would have been the first time many people had seen her box live and again she impressed.
She is also an international footballer with over 40 caps but has given it up to concentrate on boxing. Coincidentally the Irish U-17 team, a side with whom she once played, were competing on another island in the Caribbean while she was in Barbados.
Modest and more comfortable away from the limelight, Taylor does not drink or smoke. She doesn’t court celebrity in any way and occasionally appears uncomfortable in the public glare, especially after big title wins like Saturday’s.
She is also a devout Christian and an avid reader of the Bible. In recent years she has begun to speak more openly about God and does so unselfconsciously. On Saturday, in the wake of her win over Cheng Dong, she again made reference to the importance of her strong faith in her life.
“I can’t believe it, I’m speechless,” she said. “I’m delighted the way it went. It’s the best two weeks of my life. . . . I’d like to thank my mother and my father and family. Most of all I want to thank God for the victory. Without him it wouldn’t have been possible.”
One of the favourite Bible passages she memorises is Psalm 18 – “It is God, who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.”
She and her mother Bridget attend St Mark’s Pentecostal Church in Dublin whenever possible. Doubtlessly there she will look for the guidance and the strength to live up to the enormous expectations she will continue to carry towards the Olympic Games. Only athlete Sonia O’Sullivan at her world- beating best engendered the same elevated levels of promise and drew such high public expectation.
It is something about which Taylor is already uncomfortable.
Her semi-final fight in Barbados against America’s Queen Underwood was a glimpse of just what causes her anxiety, especially as the larger nations continue to ramp up their investment in women’s boxing now that Olympic medals and international kudos can be won.
Underwood’s fiery offensive in the latter rounds unsettled Taylor. Over the next two years he can expect more rough house tactics against her in a more competitive lightweight division. For the three -times World Champion another demanding chapter begins.
HONOURS
2005: European champion (Norway) 2006: European champion (Poland) 2006: World champion (India) 2007: European champion (Denmark) 2008: World champion (China) 2009: European champion (Ukraine) 2010: World champion (Barbados)
– All titles at lightweight (60kg)
