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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Robert Hynes

Delfine Persoon accepts defeat to Katie Taylor: 'This time I respect the result'

Delfine Persoon says she accepts her defeat to Katie Taylor this time.

The Belgian believed she won the first fight between the pair, but had no such complaints this time around.

Taylor retained her lightweight world titles with a unanimous points decision over Persoon.

The Bray fighter was pushed to the limit for the second time by Persoon at Matchroom HQ in Essex, but the judges' scorecards were 98-93, 96-94, 96-94 in her favour.

Speaking after the fight, Persoon said: “This time I respect the result.

“This time the weight was an issue for me, but I didn’t have the power to hurt her.

"Technically, she is so good. This time I accept she deserves to win. I have no problem with this."

Taylor said afterwards that she knew it was going to be a "tough, tough battle", but felt confident she had done enough to win.

Katie Taylor celebrates winning with promotor Eddie Hearn and her team (©INPHO/Matchroom Boxing/Mark Robinson)

She told Sky Sports: "I knew it was going to be a tough, tough battle coming into this fight. It's never going to be an easy battle against Delfine, she is relentless.

"I knew I would have to dig deep at some stages during the fight, but I thought I boxed a lot better than last time. I stuck to my boxing a lot more, even if I got drawn in a few times.

"I stuck to my boxing and that's what got me the win in the end.

"You can't relax in there at all against someone like Delfine, she going to come and come and come. Even though I'm hitting her clean shots she's going to attack all the time. That's why it's such a tough fight against someone like her.

"Congratulations to her for two amazing fights, what an amazing two fights to be part of."

(Mark Robinson)

Taylor started well in Saturday's second encounter and pushed Persoon back with a couple of strong left hooks.

Persoon was heavily marked under the right eye in the second round as Taylor continued to dominate.

But the Belgian's high work-rate began to trouble Taylor and the Bray native also sustained a nasty swelling on her forehead.

Persoon refused to take a backward step and she landed a high volume of shots, with her right hand proving highly effective.

Taylor responded with a burst of punches on the bell as Persoon tumbled to the floor almost in exhaustion.

Person, who said after the fight she might have broken her nose in the second round, was gracious in defeat and felt Taylor had done enough to retain her WBC, IBF, WBO and WBA titles.

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