Long road from dingy Bray gym to London ring

In a grubby little corner on the edge of Bray, down by the harbour, sits the town’s boxing gym.

Walk across the front and it measures just 12 metres, its depth isn’t a whole lot greater and a cluster of tourists who walk by ask you if it is derelict. The tin roof sits uneasily on a frail frame, the windows have been blocked up by a builder, the door is a rusted chunk of uneven metal.

In boxing it’s not the quality of the gym, but the quality of the fighters in the gym but even considering that, it’s amazing to think that this has been as it good as it’s gotten for Katie Taylor. As a kid there wasn’t even this humble setting, so her father and coach Peter came up with idea of pulling the kitchen table at home to one side and the tiles of the floor became her canvas. Meanwhile in the garden shed, there was just enough room for a bag and a few weights so she could push herself well beyond her limit time and again.