Katie Taylor still improving, reckons old rival Queen Underwood

American lightweight Queen Underwood believes that Olympic champion Katie Taylor is improving on the road to Rio 2016.

The ex-Pan American champion dropped a unanimous decision to Taylor at a sold-out Tralee BC-hosted promotion the Brandon Hotel in Kerry on Saturday night.

Taylor took at least three of the four rounds from a cracking contest, a repeat of the 2010 World Elite semi-final which the Irishwoman won en route to gold in Barbados.

The verdict completed a Munster double for the Wicklow orthodox, as she beat Serbia’s Jelina Jelic on a Kanturk BC-hosted card at Mallow GAA Complex in Cork on Friday.

Saturday’s decision was Taylor’s 61st straight victory since her controversial defeat to Bulgaria’s Denista Eliseeva in Bulgaria in February 2011 and her 163rd win from 170 outings in her career.

The 29-year-old Olympic champion is building up toward April’s Rio 2016 qualifier in Samsun, Turkey. A top two finish (reach the 60kg final) will book a ticket for the 31st Olympiad.

Seattle-native Underwood, in contrast, is planning to turn pro and believes her last bout in the amateur code against a “true champion” was the best.

“Coming to Ireland was an opportunity I could not miss. So I decided to come here and have my last fight (as an amateur) and it turned out to be the best fight,” she said.

“She (Taylor) improves all the time. I told her it’s hard being a champion and being on top for so long. You’ve got to keep the hunger going, you’ve gotta keep the desire.

“You got so many people wanting you to lose. People are saying: ‘We want someone, beat her, beat her.’ That’s how it was for me in the States. I’ve been a champion since 2007 and they’re always looking for someone to take my spot.

“So much of that just got the best of it, and I’m just like, ‘you know what, forget it.’ No support, no one wants me to win, I just might as well focus on myself.”

Taylor had Irish interim head coach Zaur Antia and Taylor’s brother Lee working her corner in the bouts in Cork and Kerry.

Antia will take charge of the Irish Elite squad for the first time competitively at the 67th Strandja multi-nations in Bulgaria this week. The squad left for Sofia this morning.