Rats, pigeons and prizefighters: New York in all its glory

New York is a fitting host for what should be an unmissable occasion at the iconic Madison Square Garden on Friday night where Katie Taylor will fight Amanda Serrano.

START SPREADING THE NEWS: A view of the giant inflatable of Katie Taylor. Pic: ©INPHO/Gary Carr.

The rats of the sky are out to delay our arrival in the extraordinary city.

On Tuesday morning, a New York bound plane was forced into an emergency U-turn due to a bird strike that rendered one engine inoperable. The start of Katie Taylor’s fight week promotion would have to wait.

That’s how it often goes. One day you’re soaring. The next you’re sucked into the turbines and the source of mild irritation for a pack of travelling journalists who’ve lost a few hours and gained some questionable colour. However bad it was for us, the pigeons had it far worse.

New York is a fitting host for what should be an unmissable occasion at the iconic Madison Square Garden on Friday night. In a sporting sense, there is no competition from the big dogs that are the NFL and NBA.

Wednesday morning’s papers celebrate a baseball comeback win for the Mets who managed to turn over a 6-2 deficit in the eighth inning to defeat the Baltimore Orioles, named after the New World bird of the American blackbird family. Fittingly, the NY Post headline reads: Flippin’ the birds.

On the same day, Taylor was busy at the World Trade Center’s Oculus for the public workout. That building, as it happens, is a white metal-clad steel structure shaped up and out in a monumental move symbolic of a hand releasing a dove. Slick, striking and surreal.

It fits perfectly in in this thriving, noisy, dirty and exuberant place. Marvel at the skyline all you want, but don’t step off the curb while doing so. Passing bike messengers will bark to admonish you as not just an idiot, but a whole other category of idiot.

A ‘dumb idiot.’ The brightest lights need the darkest streets. In New York, you either soar or get swallowed whole. It should ensure eternal appreciation for those who manage to rise. The dreamers who start at the bottom and find a way to reach the absolute summit.

In 2017, Taylor made her US debut in this city. She was 1/200 going into what was her sixth professional fight against Jasmine Clarkson and emerged with visible frustration at the lack of available quality opponents. Now she headlines the sport's most iconic arena at the top of an all-female card as the champion yet the outsider.

The smell of street food and essential caffeine on one side, the pong of the subway vents on the other. Last month Mayor Eric Adams announced his administration’s war on rats had reached another level. 

They’ve created specialised teams to tackle the rodent population. It comes amidst a wave of similar moves: from the NYC Rat Pack, to educational ‘rat walks’ and other mitigation services. There’s even a Department of Health Rat Academy.

“Today, we are embarking on a new era of urban pest management,” he said. “Our administration is announcing a $877,000 investment to get rats out of 600,000 street tree beds across the five boroughs.” 

What a city.