For more than a decade, Katie Taylor was widely and justifiably regarded as the most formidable operator in women’s boxing, amateur or professional. She collected 18 gold medals across the spectrum of her sport at European and world level, with the 2012 London Olympic Games a high point, and there was hardly a rival who could lay a glove on her, sometimes literally.
Indeed, given her concurrent proficiency as a footballer for the Republic of Ireland national team, the Dubliner could lay claim to being among the best all‑round female athletes in the world, a smiling, humble star from a small island who ran out of mountains to climb.
So, at 31 and with plenty of ambition left, Taylor arrives in Cardiff on Saturday night challenging for the WBA lightweight title in just her seventh professional contest. In front of her is the 26-year-old Argentinian Anahi Sánchez, a two-weight world champion who has won 17 of her 19 fights in two years as a pro. It will be no cakewalk.
The Argentinian failed by a pound to make weight on Friday, so the title becomes vacant and only Taylor can take the title - if she wins.
“These are the kind of fights that I dream of and these are the fights that get the best out of me,” Taylor said this week, almost lost in the hubbub attending the main event, Anthony Joshua’s defence of his IBF world heavyweight title against the 36‑year‑old Frenchman Carlos Takam.
Even though Taylor’s is likely to be the more competitive bout, one with uncertainty and excitement attached, she has to take her place on the edge of the AJ limelight, as she has done in four of her paid contests. It is a reality she has coped with well enough, even though she has descended from a higher place to start again in the more financially lucrative department of her sport.
Ideally the fighter from Bray would love to win this title and defend it in front of her Irish fans in Dublin, but she is caught up in the commercial doings of her promoter, Matchroom, and that inevitably means following the Joshua caravan wherever it might wander.
Presuming he does not slip against Takam, the next stop on the heavyweight’s journey will be a long way from Dublin, possibly the US, where he hopes Deontay Wilder is still the owner of the WBC version of the title.
None of this seems to overly bother Taylor, who said this week: “When I first sat down with Eddie [Hearn], we always planned to box for a world title in the space of a year, so we are definitely on track.”
While her Irish manager, Brian Peters, would love to bring her home, the numbers have to add up. Right now, they don’t. Taylor is hitched to another wagon and time is not her friend.
As Peters told Irish journalists recently: “Dublin will feature [in plans], but there’s huge interest from American TV companies and even the [UFC fighter] Holly Holm fight down the road is a strong possibility. Katie wants to fight in Dublin at home, but she’s still building and she’s only a pro since November.”
While Taylor has impressed in the professional ranks, her boxing was starting to fray a little towards the end as an amateur, and she was disappointed to lose 1-2 in the 60kg quarter-finals at Rio 2016 to the Finn Mira Potkonen, who went on to take bronze.
However, Taylor has been rejuvenated in the paid ranks. She has stopped four opponents in style and has adapted well to the more intense rhythm of professional boxing. She wants to entertain and knows knockouts are the quickest route to applause.
It will not be easy. Sánchez – known as La Indiecita, which translates, weirdly, as The Girl – won her first world title at featherweight in 2015, outclassing a long-time champion in the 30-year-old Dahiana Santana, who had not lost in four years. She has since grown in stature and size.
If Taylor takes Sánchez’s title, she will not want for challenges, chief among them, maybe, persuading the people guiding her career to give her a homecoming to remember.
