Katie Taylor 'deserves' Croke Park fight says…

Katie Taylor 'deserves' Croke Park fight says legendary boxing coach

Renowned boxing coach Tony Sims believes that Katie Taylor deserves to have a fight at Croke Park.

The Bray boxer emerged victorious in a fight of the year contender against Amanda Serrano at Madison Square Garden in April of this year, and that spectacle prompted a clamouring for a Croke Park rematch.

However, that dream was put on ice when Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn claimed Serrano and her promoter Jake Paul "don’t want to go to Ireland" and "don’t really want a rematch this year".

WBC and WBO featherweight champion Serrano will instead face IBF titlist Sarah Mahfoud in a unification bout this September as the co-main event of the Joe Joyce v Joseph Parker card in Manchester.

But Sims believes a fight at Croke Park is an honour Taylor deserves sooner rather than later.

Speaking exclusively to Paddy Power, he said: “We saw the sort of crowd Katie Taylor pulled in at her last fight at Madison Square Garden, so you could imagine the sort of crowd she could pull in at Croke Park.

“Any fighter that’s achieved what she’s achieved, in unifying the division, deserves to fight on home soil and we don’t know how many more fights she’s going to do.

“It would be great to see her fight in her home country, and it will be amazing."

Tony Sims says Katie Taylor deserves to fight at Croke Park sooner rather than later. (©INPHO/James Crombie)

Sims also reserved praise for Taylor for her impact on women's boxing.

He continued: "What she’s done for women’s boxing is phenomenal, because before she was professional it was really a sport where not a lot of people took notice of women’s boxing.

"But now, she has brought it to the forefront because of what she’s done, you’ve seen a lot more professional women as fighters coming through, and I believe it will get better as it goes along.”

The desired rematch with Serrano at Croke Park may be on the back burner until 2023, but a bumper schedule of women's bouts is coming up in September.

Taylor has been linked with facing a number of the fighters who will be in action, both by herself and by her promoter Eddie Hearn.

Among those is Natasha Jonas, who Taylor defeated on her way to Olympic gold in London in 2012.

More recently, Taylor trumped the Liverpudlian in a fight of the year contender back in May 2021.

Jonas lost out narrowly on points on that occasion and earlier this year she admitted she would love another crack at the the Bray icon.

She told Sky Sports: "I would love a rematch with Katie. I think a lot of people did say they would love to see it again.

"It's not impossible, I just have to put myself in a position to be mandatory and that was kind of the plan all along."

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