Katie Taylor undercard stars get the juices flowing for Croke Park extravaganza

There was plenty of edge on show at the Helix on Thursday evening. 

FAMILAIR FACE OFF: Paddy Donovan and Tyrone McKenna. Pic: INPHO/Gary Carr

If this week’s long love-in for all things Katie Taylor was missing something up to now then it had to be that undercurrent of bite and spite that can elevate even the most humdrum of fight weeks long before the sound of the first bell.

Taylor had done her best, in her low-key way, to inject some steel into the soft focus that surrounds her farewell gig in Croke Park by insisting this is no exhibition bout against Flora Pili. Her opponent, of course, has made similarly predictable noises.

Fine for what it all was, but not exactly Apollo Creed in his pomp stuff.

Enter Paddy Donovan, Tyrone McKenna and the rest of the undercard for Thursday’s undercard press conference at The Helix in Dublin for what proved to be a thoroughly entertaining hour of chat, laughs and no little bravado.

“I am going to drown you, son. You are not going to be able to breathe.” That was McKenna speaking, the veteran Belfast welterweight who has promised to suffocate – in the boxing sense, we should stress - Limerick’s Paul Donovan in what is undoubtedly the second-biggest fight of the night.

And this is two lads who go back years.

Donovan and McKenna have roomed together in the past, they have sparred hundreds of rounds. There was obvious respect and more than a hint of affection traded between them here, but it was laced with needle and intent.

“Tyrone can talk all the shit he wants over there, we’ll see on fight night,” said Donovan. “I’ll be ready, don’t worry. I’ve a job to do, I’m going to beat you and move on to become a world champion. But you are up first and I’m going to deal with you good and proper.” 

McKenna is 36 years of age now, 12 years removed from his pro debut, but he spent his own dough to go and train in Philadelphia with Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis, the father and trainer of current wel¬ter¬weight champion Jaron Ennis.

Donovan didn’t even need to take this fight. He’d already positioned himself as next line to challenge for the IBF belt despite a pair of defeats to Lewis Crocker in Belfast last year. Put simply: he can’t afford to take another loss here. This is a risk and an opportunity.

“I couldn’t turn down the chance to fight in front of 80,000 Irish fans,” the 27-year old southpaw explained. “It’s my time. We want to bring big shows back to Ireland when Katie is gone and I’m going to be the guy to do it.” There are stories stitched right through the card, as we expect with boxing.

It all starts at 4.15pm on Saturday when Paul Ryan and Paddy Gallagher meet in an all-Irish middleweight contest. Both of them echoed so many of the others by voicing what a privilege it is to be part of the occasion and bigging themselves up.

“It’s a chance to open up doors now and I want to kick them down,” said Ryan.

Adam Olaniyan stars in one of two heavyweight bouts with great things expected of him, and of himself. The promoter Brian Peters upped that ante by predicting Olaniyan will be to Jobstown what Muhammad Ali is to Louisville, Kentucky.

“I think he’s going to be something very special,” said Peters. No kidding.

Emmet Brennan can see Croke Park when he opens up his front door in the north inner city. The 2024 Olympian is 6-0 but he faces the impressive 9-0 Taylor Bevan and with Peters, who represents the English fighter, promising to double the Irishman’s purse should he win.

That one is being flagged as the potential fight of the night but it will have serious competition if the Dave Allen v Thomas Carty contest is half as good as the back-and-forth that pair engaged in on stage.

Allen was so good we’ve given him his own space on these pages.

Bobbi Flood, up against Jack Swallow in a super-welterweight fight, spoke of the pride he holds in appearing at GAA headquarters 14 years after his mother took him down to the Brady seafront to watch Taylor’s homecoming from the London Olympics.

“I was looking at me ma’s Facebook page and she has a picture of Katie holding a small picture of me when I was young and she had it signed. She said, ‘watch this space’. And now I’m one of the first people opening up the show. It’s proper surreal.” There is one other female bout on the bill, Liverpool’s Molly ‘Meatball’ McCann continuing her turn from high-profile UFC star to boxer with her fifth spin inside the ring as she meets the Anglo-Polish fighter Sylwia Doligala at bantamweight.

McCann is a cousin of Taylor’s through her grandmother who was also the Bray boxer’s great-aunt. It’s not a connection she ever traded on, but she shares more than blood with the Irish legend as they both had to combat prejudice to get where they are.

“I remember walking into a boxing gym and being turned away, told I wasn’t allowed to box because I was a girl. I remember starting boxing and my coach brought in a camcorder and said, ‘watch this girl, I’ve just seen her training with her dad’.

“That was Katie and Pete [Taylor’s father]. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I want to be like her.’ Twenty years later, here we are. It’s not lost on me how many girls would kill to be in this position.”