Taylor to box the best in Europe
The 20-year-old lightweight from Bray will be stepping up to light welter for this contest but she showed that she is quite capable of conceding the weight when she went to war with tough Canadian, Katie Dunn, in one of two exhibition bouts at the World Championships in Chicago last year.
This will be her fourth appearance in Fermoy. Since her first she has gone on to win two European and one world title and establish herself among the best amateur boxers in the world, male or female.
Her opponent tonight is ranked number one in Europe at her weight and number two in the world which would make her a difficult opponent to crack.
“Katie is well up to the task,” insisted tournament organiser, Pa Flynn, who was team manager when Taylor won her first gold medal for Ireland in Oslo in 2004. “It was easy to see at that time that she was special even though she was mixing her boxing with a very promising soccer career with the Irish team.”
Recently she more than held her own against Jerome Thomas, a former world flyweight champion and two time Olympic silver medallist, when the French Olympic hopefuls trained with Ireland in Dublin en route to Italy for the qualifiers.
“Katie gave as good as she got against Thomas and I would say that the sparring session ended in a draw which shows you just how good she is,” Irish head coach, Billy Walsh, said. “She also sparred with England’s Paul Butler and more than held her own in that match also.”
“It was another fantastic performance by Katie,” Head of High Performance, Gary Keegan, agreed. “And the French coaches were very impressed with her physical prowess around the ring and her all round technical ability against Thomas, who is one of the top amateur boxers in the world.”
Tonight’s bill provides Ireland’s women boxers with another opportunity to showcase their talents and none more than local boxer, Ciara Noonan, a former Irish sprint champion who has stormed on to the boxing scene after just three years in the sport.
She has already had 20 contests and has won 17 of those. She claimed the Munster title last week and will box in the national championships in two weeks. After that, her coach Pa Flynn will send her to Kansas for the Ringside World Championships.
Another interesting exponent tonight will be Sarah Close, a daughter of former national champion and professional star, Ray Close, who mixed it with the best in his day. She will box a supporting bout against Jodie Simpson, whose original opponent, Juliana Soderstorm, will now meet Nickie Coady from Kilkenny.
The Bill is: 50kg: Debbie Rogers v Suzanne Wiklund; 54kg: Christiana McMahon v Jenny Hardings; Jodie Simpson v Sarah Close; Nickie Coady v Juliana Soderstorm; 57kg: Ciara Noonan v Adriana Siljendhi; 63kg: Katie Taylor v Klana Svensson; 66kg: Marsha Halpin v Ronja Holegersson; 70kg: Laura O’Neill v Johanna Ekdahl.
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