From Amateur Revelation to the Zenith: An A-Z of Katie Taylor
28 April 2022; Katie Taylor during a media conference, held at the Hulu Theatre at Madison Square Garden, ahead of her undisputed lightweight championship fight with Amanda Serrano, on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York, USA. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
Breaking down boundaries in the paid ranks is her primary preoccupation now, but Katie Taylor’s trailblazing transformation of amateur boxing will likely endure as her magnum opus. Such was the breadth of those ascendant international successes that she single-handedly strong-armed the women's code into the Olympic games, famously winning gold during its maiden iteration of 2012.
A proud exponent of Wicklow’s coastal capital, Taylor continues to fly its flag the world over. Two decades on from her nascent sporting forays at Bray Boxing Club, her humbling Ballywaltrim beginnings have remained a recurring point of reference amidst the heady heights which followed.
A word which has come to define her entire sporting life and times, Taylor’s has 10 times reigned as champion of the world across both codes, those successes added to 12 European titles and her feted Olympic crown.
25 years ago, Deirdre Gogarty became the first Irish woman to win a world championship in the squared circle, besting Bonnie Canino to claim the IBF featherweight belt. Although her story was staged somewhat off-Broadway compared to that of Taylor, Gogarty’s trendsetting strides remain.
“I’m very grateful for the women that went before me”, says Taylor, "the likes of Deirdre who were pioneers in the sport. I don’t think that I’d be in the position I’m in today if it wasn’t for all those girls who went before me."
Ross Enamait is rarely found in the limelight, nor does he seek it. The Norfolk native first segued from investment banking into the boxing beat around 2002, training a slew of prospects before winning the head coaching role with Team Taylor in 2016. The American has cornered KT’s entire professional career to date, heading up training camp from their base in Connecticut.
It would be impossible to wholly tell the Katie Taylor story without mention of her father Pete, perhaps singularly the most influential figure in paving her boxing path. Himself a former light-heavyweight standout, he charted the origins of Katie’s in-ring endeavours, masterminding matters right through to her famous Olympic victory at London 2012.
While publicised personal strife beyond the ropes would stymy that working relationship, Taylor’s broader reliance on her family unit remains steadfast. Her mother Bridget - Ireland’s first female boxing judge - is still a key cornerstone in Katie’s career.
Taylor’s deep religious beliefs have always been woven into her persona, both privately and publicly.
“It is God who arms me with strength”, she notes, citing Psalm 18, the words emblazoned on her in-ring attire.
“My mam always comes in with me to pray before every fight, it’s probably the most important part of my preparation on those nights.”
With well-nigh every bucket list item ticked, the glaring omission is a headline homecoming event on Irish soil. The well-chronicled security concerns emanating from The Regency shooting of 2016 served to stifle much of the momentum around the domestic boxing scene. Taylor’s entire career to date has thus taken place in the UK and US.
When asked if recent developments may have changed the landscape in that regard, promoter Eddie Hearn remained non-committal.
“I just think it would be very disappointing if she never got the chance to go to Ireland and let her have that moment. We will see what happens. It’s too early to comment on anything that has happened. But if she beats Serrano maybe we could do the repeat there.”
Before setting her sights solely on the sweet science, Taylor made 11 appearances and twice scored for the Ireland senior football team, that after a run of stellar international underage success and club honours. In the end, she forewent that promising soccer career (as well as a slew of lucrative stateside university scholarships) to redouble efforts towards her Olympic dream.
Few better threatened Taylor’s unblemished record in the paid ranks than the then little-known Chicagoan Jessica McCaskill. The American pushed KT to the pin of her collar in 2017.
What was once framed as a routine first title defence for Taylor has retroactively assumed a wholly different hue, with McCaskill’s meteoric rise in the intervening years testament to the gravity of that contest.
Indeed, since narrowly losing out to Taylor, McCaskill has become an undisputed champion in her own right, snaring the welterweight crown from modern legend Cecilia Brækhus. Should Taylor navigate her upcoming bout this weekend, a McCaskill rematch could well await.
Chief among the hurdles in Katie Taylor’s circuitous route to sporting immortality was the reality that women’s boxing had initially been prohibited in Ireland.
Keen to hone her formative skills in competitive action, the emergent Bray teen registered for boys' competitions under the alias 'K Taylor' before eventually lobbying the IABA to permit female athletes to compete. Aged 15, she eventually partook in the country’s first officially sanctioned women’s boxing match circa 2001.
Amidst the glitzy array of settings which have housed her bouts, it was the offbeat venue of Leeds’ Headingley Stadium that won Taylor’s affections more than most.
“Some of my best memories as a kid involve visiting the city,” she noted ahead of last year’s win over Jennifer Han, “going to Leeds United games in Elland Road as a fan. My roots are there so the city obviously has a special place in my heart. I never thought I’d actually have a chance to fight there.”
"I’ve been seriously considering turning pro the last few months. I think I could do for women’s pro boxing what I did for the amateur sport.”
So read the message Katie Taylor first sent Eddie Hearn in 2016. For his part, the Matchroom Boxing boss was initially skeptical of the pursuit. By then, women’s boxing had little commercial backing or mainstream presence.
The Essex native rolled the dice on Taylor’s cast-iron self-belief, with the pair eventually going some way to making female bouts a staple of the sport at the elite level. To that end, Taylor has become a central star in the Matchroom galaxy, joining the likes of Anthony Joshua in the company’s headline bracket.
This weekend marks Taylor’s third outing in the feted environs of Madison Square Garden, widely dubbed as the mecca of boxing. Across the arena’s vast storied history, Saturday’s fare will be the first fight event ever headlined by a female bout, with a sell-out crowd expected.
Certainly the seminal staging post in the Taylor story, her gold medal glory at 2012’s London Olympics will likely always remain without peer. Her debut bout versus Natasha Jonas numbered a scarcely fathomable 113.7 decibels, the loudest ovation to greet any contest at those games, while the eventual final against Sofya Ochigava drew every eye of the nation.
“My whole childhood was based around this Olympic dream, and I felt the whole weight of a country was on my shoulders during that competition. So, this week seems like a piece of cake in comparison to the pressure I was feeling during those London Olympics to be quite honest.”
A huge part of the halcyon Bernard Dunne days, Brian Peters has played a similarly formative role in the professional journey of Katie Taylor. Plotting her path through the pro-ranks in a managerial capacity, Peters’ powers of negotiations have ensured Taylor’s in-ring successes have been reflected in her commercial growth within the sporting spectrum.
A byword for all her undertakings, Taylor’s 'legacy' remains her key driving force. While her impact on the mechanics of the sport at large are by now self-evident, her chief source of pride is what her success may do for those who seek to follow in her footsteps.
"I feel very privileged to be in this position and to be an inspiration to the next generation and to have those young girls look up to me. It's a huge responsibility as well and I want to set a great example for these young girls coming up. I want to give them hope and I want them to know that the dreams they have in their hearts can be possible."
Perhaps the low point of her athletic life, Taylor’s dispiriting exit from the 2016 Olympic games once seemed certain to spell the end of her sporting aspirations. Instead, that defeat precipitated the hard reset which set her upon this second chapter.
“I definitely would not be here right now [at Madison Square Garden] if I had won gold in Rio. It’s amazing how it all turned out. I think my biggest disappointment has been the springboard to my greatest comeback.”
Perennially mooted as a would-be opponent, the Amanda Serrano intrigue first reached fever pitch when Taylor thwarted the Puerto Rican’s elder sister Cindy in the autumn of 2018. That contest was always likely to be an hors-d'œuvre to this Saturday’s generational contest. Serrano, herself a seven-division world champion, will enter the fray as a marginal favourite with the bookmakers.
November, 2019 saw Taylor etch another milestone on her CV, further cementing her place in Irish sporting history with a points victory over Christina Linardatou for the WBO super lightweight title. In so doing, Taylor followed Steve Collins and Carl Frampton in becoming only the third Irish boxer to win major championships in multiple divisions.
June 1, 2019 remains the signature date on the Taylor pro ledger to date. That event also took place in Madison Square Garden’s hallowed hall, as KT became the undisputed lightweight champion of the world, eventually defusing the threat of then fellow titlist Delfine Persoon to eke out a frenetic victory. She currently ranks as one of only 11 boxers in history [male and female] to simultaneously hold all the world championship belts in a given division.
Another central moment had come against Argentina’s Victoria Bustos a year earlier, as Taylor carved out her slot as the third ever Irish boxer to unify world titles. That triumph at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center pedestaled her on that plane alongside Ulstermen Carl Frampton and Ryan Burnett.
Few could have foreseen that Taylor's professional debut in Wembley Arena would spawn the peerless success which followed. Her comparably unheralded bow was pegged as merely a midcard attraction on an event headed up by the likes of Ohara Davies and Martin J. Ward. Just five fights later, she was walking out in the 90,000 capacity surrounds of Wembley Stadium, winning her first professional title on the gargantuan Anthony Joshua-Wladimir Klitschko bill.
“Katie is one of the most talented fighters around”, says Eddie Hearn of that star quality, Taylor’s fan-friendly style making her a marketable commodity in and out of the ring.
“She is also one of the most committed athletes I’ve ever met, and she has really mixed what was an amazing amateur pedigree with an exciting pro style. She’s the whole package and, if you don’t enjoy watching her, then this sport probably isn’t for you.”
Perhaps emboldened by the success of evergreen contemporaries like Tom Brady, Taylor imbues no sense of calling it quits. With her 36th birthday coming in July, she is not ruling out boxing into her 40th year.
"I know that I only have a few years left in the sport, but right now I feel very fresh and I feel quite good.
"I obviously still love my job as well and that's what motivates me. I still actually love this job. I'm still not tired of getting up in the mornings and doing the roadwork for example. I just want to continue to improve.”
"This is very, very special because it is the best versus the best, champion versus champion," avowed Taylor of Saturday's signature match-up with Serrano.
"This is just a great boxing match. This isn't just the best female fight right now, but probably the best fight you can see right now, male or female. On Saturday night we're going to put on a showcase for the sport."
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
