An incredible achievement.
Katie Taylor has been crowned the undisputed lightweight champion of the world.
The Bray boxer went head to head against Belgium’s Delfine Persoon at New York’s Madison Square Garden last night.
The fight was incredibly close, but at the end of it, Taylor secured the WBC belt, adding it to her WBA, IBF and WBO belts she already has since turning her hand to professional boxing four years ago.
“This is what I’ve dreamed of since turning pro,” Taylor said following the fight. “This was always my ultimate goal. To have all five belts and to make history in my sport, this is what it’s all about.”
“Absolutely incredible” – @KatieTaylor gives me her reaction to becoming the undisputed lightweight champion of the world. #KatieTaylor @RTEsport @rtenews pic.twitter.com/OhN5G7niEH
— Brian O'Donovan (@BrianOD_News) June 2, 2019
Taylor told RTE that she is open to a rematch against Persoon some time in the future, but that right now she wants to focus on other fights.
“We’re definitely very open to a rematch, we’ll see what happens down the line,” she said. “There’s a lot of big fights out there for me, so I guess we can talk about that later on.”
“This is why I sacrifice so much, why I train so hard,” she added.
Persoon stormed out of the arena after the results in favour of Taylor were announced. One judge scored the fight 95-95, with two others giving 96-94 in favour of Taylor.
20×20 is an ambitious two-year long initiative to better promote and champion women in sport.
With the tagline of “if she can’t see it, she can’t be it,” the 20×20 movement has three targets to reach by 2020:
- 20 percent more media coverage of women in sport
- 20 percent more female participation
- 20 percent more attendance at women’s competitions and events
And at Maximum Media, we’re proud that Her and SportsJOE is backing the 20×20 movement as official digital media partners
