Katie ‘is electric — absolutely flying it’

Pete Taylor said they were preparing for a tough fight at the ExCel Arena today (2.30pm) when his daughter, Katie, will take on Natasha Jonas for the bronze medal at the inaugural women’s Olympic tournament.

He had just watched Jonas outpoint Queen Underwood 21-13 for the right to meet the four-time world champion in the quarter-finals and while the margin of victory did not reflect the American’s effort, he said it was what he expected.

“I expected her to win and I said by about eight points so that wasn’t a bad guess,” he said. “It’s going to be a tough fight. She will have home advantage as well, but look, I know what she is going to try and do against Katie and we have plans against that.

“Katie’s the one to beat but it should be a good fight. She was just waiting for the counter all the time and that’s what she does, and she’ll probably employ the same tactics again. We’ll see. I’m not going to say too much about what we’re going to do. We’ll see how she copes with Katie’s speed. She’s the most improved 60kg boxer out there, and I said that at the World Championships. She is improving all the time. She won the test event at the ExCel and she won a bronze medal at the Worlds where she was beaten by Ochigava.

“She has improved alright, but so has Katie.”

When Taylor and Jonas met in the semi-finals of the Strandja multi-nations tournament in Pazardjik in February last year, Taylor had stacked up five European titles and three world titles. She won that contest 6-3 with Jonas, who admitted yesterday that she was in awe of the Irish boxer, coming from six points down.

Her coach, Leo Pullen, recalled that fight yesterday and how Jonas dug deep for that fightback. He insisted she was a much-improved boxer since then and had come on by leaps and bounds since the world championships in China where she won a bronze medal. Her performance yesterday against Queen Underwood would appear to bear that out.

Jonas only appeared on the radar in 2007 when she lost to another Irish boxer, Sinead Kavanagh, on countback. The following year she won a silver medal at light welter in the European Union Championships in her native Liverpool.

Her first gold medal came at the European Union championships the following year and she made the quarter finals of the European championships in Nikolayev.

Last year she won the gold medal at light welterweight at the European Union Championships and beat Queen Underwood in the final of the Olympic Test event. This year she lost to Sofia Ochigava in the quarter finals of the world championships. None of her achievements, however, would suggest that she is a threat to Taylor. Katie has her own room at the Athletes Village, and has been sparring with John Joe Nevin, Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan in recent days and the three of them all got through to the quarter-finals.

High Performance Coach, Billy Walsh, said she wanted to sample the whole experience of the Olympic Games and she has been loving every minute of it.

“Carrying the tri-colour was a fantastic honour for her,” he said.

“Now she is looking forward to the business end of it. We did some pad work with her last night and she was electric — absolutely flying it.

“The fact that she is fighting Jonas makes an even more special occasion. There is going to be some atmosphere in the Arena for that one. There will be a hell of a lot of Irish support there as well. It will be equal.”