Frustrated Taylor ready to try luck in pro ranks

Katie Taylor has revealed she is again “flirting” with the idea of turning professional — and the 2012 Olympic gold medallist may well be joined in the paid boxing ranks by Michael Conlon, who claimed a bronze in London last year.

Both fighters opened up about their frustrations with the Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) yesterday, with Taylor pointing to the lack of progress in furthering the female fight game worldwide as another source of disenchantment.

“They are a very hard organisation to work with at times,” said Taylor, echoing Conlon’s disgruntlement with the failure of the body to capitalise on last summer’s successes and secure bigger and better fights and backing for their boxers.

“It can get frustrating at times. Even sponsorship with Paddy Barnes, I think he’s the only two-time Olympic medallist in the world who doesn’t have a sponsor on board. It’s crazy. Those guys should be settled for life.”

Taylor has a number of high-profile commercial backers, including Sky for whom she was promoting their Living for Sport initiative yesterday, but she pointed out that was due to the efforts of her father/coach Pete rather than the boxing authorities.

With John Joe Nevin reportedly considering a switch to the professional game, these are worrying times for the high performance unit, which has delivered medals in abundance at the highest level despite a sometimes fractious relationship with the governing body.

Taylor’s post-London career has been a disappointment, with the fighter struggling to secure bouts against quality opposition. She claimed the EU Championships earlier this year were held in a tented area and watched by little more than a hundred people.

Next year brings with it the European and World Championships, but Taylor may have turned her back on the amateur game by then given her disillusionment with the failure to launch a female version of the World Series of Boxing and the general malaise in promotion here.

“I think all the boxers are in the same boat,” she said. “We’re all really frustrated with how boxing has been marketed over the last few years. You see in these internationals in the [National] Stadium, there’s only a handful of people there and it’s like a secret. “People don’t really know about these fights going on. For Olympic medallists to be boxing in front of a crowd of maybe one hundred people, it’s disappointing. It’s our most successful Olympic sport.”

Conlon’s feelings were remarkably similar.

The Belfast flyweight will represent his country at the World Championships in the Kazakhstan capital of Almaty in October but, should he win gold — or maybe even any manner of medal — he will draw the curtain on his amateur career and join his brother Jamie in the pro game.

“Yes, 100%,” he said yesterday in Dublin. “If I won gold at the worlds more than likely I’d be gone because the right offer would be there. There would no point in waiting around because other offers in a year would fade.”

His ultimate goal is a career in the USA. He may yet fight for the American team in the World Series of Boxing but he envisages a switch Stateside full-time if he quits the IABA high performance unit, even if his eyes aren’t blind to the harsh realities of the professional ranks.

His brother has experienced the torment of endless promises and endless training camps followed by cancelled bouts and the resultant absence of pay cheques, but the London medallist believes his CV and reputation will help him avoid most of those pitfalls. Not that everything is sweetness and light now either. Like Taylor, he was up front about the shortcomings within the IABA, and in particular their failure to publicise their best boxers and organise more home internationals. Do that, he believes, and more people would be persuaded to stay.

The signs are that John Joe Nevin, for one, will be lost to the fight game here by then. The Mullingar fighter has already performed a U-turn on an earlier decision to go pro but the indications are now that he will revert back to his original plan to leave Billy Walsh’s brigade.

Nevin was absent from the recent training camp held in Mayo, although his ultimate intentions remain unconfirmed.

Conlon’s own work in Mayo was hampered by a bruised bone in one of his hands, but he has declared himself fit and focused for the worlds which get under way on October 11.