“The biggest night of my career…”
This weekend, Katie Taylor takes on Delfine Persoon at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
The Bray boxer will be fighting the undisputed lightweight champion on Saturday night in what she has described as the most important night of her career to date.
Over the years, Taylor has taken Irish boxing to new heights, both at amateur and professional level.
She has also had her fair share of awe-inspiring, iconic, and downright incredible moments over the course of her career.
Here’s four of them.
1. Her early appearance on RTE’s Sport Stream
Back in 2002, Taylor was 15-years-old. She was also already convinced that she was going to compete in the Olympics one day.
And in fairness to her, yeah, she was entirely correct.
Interviewed by RTE’s Kevin O’Connell for Sport Stream, the soon-to-be boxing hero discussed her training, her ambition, and what she wanted to achieve going forward.
O’Connell also calls Taylor “one to watch in the future” before she spits her gum shield into his hand and tells him all about the amateur European Championships she’s got coming up on the weekend.
He knew.
You can watch the full interview below:
2. Her gold win at the 2012 Olympics
At the 2012 summer Olympics, Taylor acted as the flag bearer for Ireland during the games’ opening ceremony in London.
A drastically important moment on its own, but Taylor then trumped her own achievement and went on to win the Olympic gold medal for the lightweight division.
This was the first time that women’s boxing had been considered for inclusion and Taylor did us phenomenally proud.
Career defining.
3. The moment she won her first world title
In 2017, Taylor won her first world championship title.
Her seventh professional fight saw the Bray native go up against Anahi Sanchez and secure herself the WBA female lightweight title at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium.
It was an intense fight, but one that Taylor won with ease, dominating her opponent from the first to the final moments.
All three judges scored the fight 99-90 in favour of Taylor, allowing her to add WBA lightweight champion of the world to her five-time world amateur champion and six-time European champion titles, as well as the Olympic champion title she had secured almost five years before.
An incredible achievement.
4. The release of her documentary, KATIE
If you haven’t seen this film yet, you need to get on it as soon as possible.
Raw, emotional, and totally inspiring, the documentary takes viewers on a journey of Taylor’s struggle as she tries to rebuild her career after a year of turmoil threatened to derail her.
The notoriously private boxer allows a small camera crew to document her highs and her lows as she attempts to regain the intensity of her previous career successes.
And, spoilers, she does.
Taylor’s fight against Delfine Persoon takes place this Saturday in New York’s Madison Square Garden.
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
