“Everyone else is thinking about retirement, not me.”
Katie Taylor defended her undisputed lightweight champion of the world title for the sixth time last night.
She won in a unanimous-decision victory over Kazakhstan’s Firuza Sharipova at the Echo Arena in Liverpool.
The judge’s final scores were 98-92, 97-92 and 96-93 in favour of the Bray boxer.
We go the full 10 rounds ✅
Over to the judges scorecards now…#BennAlgieri pic.twitter.com/H202txJW7h
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) December 11, 2021
The Kazakhstani opponent was a serious contender but, in the end, was no match for Katie.
Speaking after the fight to DAZN, she said: “Overall it’s a 20th win in 20 fights, I’m still undefeated and undisputed. I can’t complain.
“This is professional boxing, it’s what it’s about, I’m just happy to come out with a win. My 15th defence of a world title.
“It’s been a great year and this prepares us for all the big fights next year. We’re ready for a big 2022.
“I want to be involved in the biggest fights possible. To fight Amanda Serrano, it would be the biggest fight ever in female boxing.”
While many have commented that last night’s performance was not Katie’s best, she summed things up perfectly at the after-fight press conference.
“It was not a master class by any means. But all I needed to do was to get the win and I’m looking at bigger names next year.
“It was ok. But a win is a win; these opponents can be nearly banana skin type opponents as well. Mandatory challenges are always tricky…
“I knew coming into this fight that she was a great fighter, technically very good. She was a good amateur as well, so I was expecting a tough challenge tonight. Everybody else was overlooking this opponent but we certainly weren’t.
“I thought it was a convincing win so I wouldn’t say we are considering a rematch. But she is a great fighter and I had a lot of respect for her coming into this fight as well.”
Speaking to BBC Five Live later on, she revealed retirement is not at all on her mind.
“The biggest fight possible is the Amanda Serrano fight, that would be the most iconic fight out there at the moment. It’s exciting to be involved in the biggest fight possible.
“It will happen one day but I’m certainly not thinking of retirement right now, everyone else is thinking about it, not me.”
