Peters: Katie Taylor's career is not going to be held up by any other fighter
Brazilian lightweight Rose Volante has been given a put up or shut up ultimatum to put her WBO title on the line against unified IBF/WBA champion Katie Taylor.
“She was given 24 hours up until tonight (Thursday night). It’s gone on long enough,” said Taylor’s manager Brian Peters yesterday. “She was supposed to fight us there in the last fight.”
Peters believes that unbeaten Volante’s reluctance to meet Taylor is based on financial reasons as she is holding out for a bigger purse.
However, he insisted they won’t be held to ransom by the Sao Paulo fighter (14-0-0), whose last defence was against 42-year-old Yolis Franco in Brazil in September.
“Katie Taylor’s career is not going to be held up by any other fighter.
“By Friday, Volante will be in or out. We originally thought that we’d have it Thursday to announce it,” he added.
When they are being offered life-changing money, it does have to come to a stage where you go ‘look, enough’s enough’, you can’t be held to ransom.
The Taylor versus Volante fight, if terms are agreed, could be in Philadelphia on St Patrick’s weekend on a card also featuring Donegal’s Jason Quigley, Cork’s Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan and Dubliner Jono Carroll in an IBF title super-feather shot against defending champion Tevin Farmer.
WBC champion Delphine Persoon, meanwhile, has reportedly offered Taylor a $100,000 purse for a unification showdown and would present much more serious opposition than Volante who has never fought outside of South America.
“If Taylor wants to unify all the world lightweight titles, she must get past me first. I am ready for her,” said the Belgian who has won 42 of her 43 outings but who has never boxed outside of Europe and only once outside of Belgium.
Unbeaten Taylor will finish out the year with a firm grip on the IBF/WBA belts, 12 wins, a 42% KO ratio in her career and 85 rounds of prizefighting under her belt since beating Karina Kopinska on her pro debut in November 2016.
The unified champion boxed magnificently against the durable but limited Eva Wahlstrom at Madison Square Garden on Saturday but failed to stop the 38-year-old Finn.
The win was the fourth – three unanimous decisions and a third round TKO – of 2018 for the London 2012 gold medallist who has been frustrated in her attempt to unify the entire division by year’s end.
“I have learned that this is part of the pro game and that is the most frustrating thing.
“I want these fights but other girls are not stepping up,” she said. “To call themselves world champions, they have to fight the best. It’s their responsibility as professional fighters to fight the best.
“The only fights that really make sense for me is one of them (Volante or Persoon).
“I want to become the undisputed champion.
“I want to make history in the sport, I want to be the best of all time,” she added.
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