Katie Taylor wins every round in utterly dominant victory over Jennifer Han

Katie Taylor knocks Jennifer Han's gumshield out with a punch. Picture: INPHO/Matchroom Boxing/Matthew Pover

Katie Taylor is still the undisputed lightweight champion of the world after a unanimous decision win over Jennifer Han in Leeds this evening.

Taylor prevailed at Headingley Stadium on three shut-out ringside cards of 100-89, extending her unbeaten record to 19-0.

The 20,000-strong crowd in situ was the biggest to attend a UK boxing event since the onset of Covid-19, and Taylor sought to impress the partisan attendees from the off, her familial links to the city and love of Leeds United well-chronicled.

Han, a former featherweight world champion, was initially unable to find her rhythm in the early going, Taylor patrolling from centre-ring with varied left jabs and hooks.

The El Paso native did however prove a tricky target, Taylor struggling in spots to fully establish her timing and distance in the opening stanzas.

The Wicklow woman was sharper to start round three, thundering home with well-placed one-twos, rocking Han with a check left-hook to boot as the Texan was largely made to miss with her own front-foot forays.

Taylor again found the target with an eye-catching back-hand in the fourth, although Han was not for wilting, ruffling the champion with her own ripostes, seemingly unperturbed by the move up in weight as she robustly held her own inside.

That dynamic increasingly made for scrappy fare as the fight approached its midway point, Han perhaps edging the fifth frame before Taylor reclaimed parity with crisp single shots.

Taylor’s left hook was once more the honey punch in round six, the champion palpably upping the pace as she continued to score with individual blows rather than her more patented flurries.

To her credit, Han remained unbowed, the career-long counterpuncher doing her best to press the action in round seven.

It was the Bray native’s superior technique which continued to sway proceedings, however, a pattern which endured into the eighth as Taylor nailed Han with a customary right hand-left hook combo, the latter’s eye beginning to sport the wounds of war.

Perhaps aware of her strengthening grip on proceedings, Taylor unfurled punches in bunches to knock Han to the canvas, the 38-year-old’s feet slipping beneath her as she scrambled to evade the onslaughts.

If anything, KT’s pace ticked up as the clock ticked down, searching in vain for a stoppage in the championship rounds, thudding home to head and body as her American foe fought valiantly, firing back wilfully en route to the final bell.

Surmounting this evening’s mandatory challenge affords Team Taylor something of a clean slate hereafter, although she may have to wait until 2022 for her next truly marquee match-up.

A long-looming duel with fellow modern great Amanda Serrano could belatedly come to pass next spring. The pair had been due to trade leather last year, that before the pandemic put paid to their proposed May 2020 date.

The prospect of a rematch with former foe Jessica McCaskill, who was present in Yorkshire this evening, could also yet materialise.

The Chicagoan, whom Taylor thwarted in a memorable contest at York Hall in 2017, embarked on her own ‘Road to Undisputed’ thereafter, conquering the welterweight division with a string of impressive performances.

A championship win for Taylor at 147lbs would pen another page in the history books, setting the her apart as Ireland’s first ever three weight world champion.