Bravery and resolve of a warrior lifts Taylor to a new level
THE fight had been over for more than an hour when Katie Taylor appeared for the press conference. Her face told the story of a punishing night. Both of her eyes were swollen bruises. A rivulet of blood seeped from the left side of her head that Eddie Hearn gently dabbed with a towel as the undisputed world lightweight champion reflected on a night when she and Amanda Serrano went to war and elevated their sport to a new level.
Katie’s legendary status was secure before Saturday’s groundbreaking bout. However, the incredible bravery and resolve she displayed to come back from the brink of defeat on a noisy night in the Garden has burnished the legend even more – if that’s even possible.
Over ten riveting rounds, she eventually got the better of an impressive Amanda Serrano, the seven-weight world champion who proved that she deserves status alongside Taylor in the sport. As the pair of warriors stood in the middle of the ring, trading blows in the final 30 seconds, every one of the 19,187 people inside Madison Square Garden were on their feet, barely comprehending what they were witnessing.
Boxing remains the most brutal of trades, but when the movement is flowing and crowd are roaring,
“I was not as hurt as people may think”
when two fighters stand toe to toe and give an exhibition of exceptional ringcraft and the most extraordinary courage, as Taylor and Serrano did on Saturday, there is no other sport like it.
It was a night that nobody inside the famous old arena will ever forget. The fight of the century between Ali and Frazier was evoked constantly in the build-up and here was a war that was the equal of that iconic event. The noise was deafening as the Puerto Rican, Irish and American national anthems were played. Taylor’s ring-walk was deliberate and slow, as she soaked in the amazing atmosphere. ‘Ross[Enamait, her trainer]told me to just enjoy the moment, to take it all in, and that is what I tried to do,’ she revealed afterwards.
Taylor looked sharp in the early rounds. Serrano was throwing the larger volume of punches, but the Irish woman was more accurate as she used her footwork and timing to stay out of trouble. But towards the end of the third, there was a sign of what was to come as Taylor stood toe to toe with the biggerpunching southpaw.
The Irish legend loves an oldfashioned ‘tear-up’ and her desire to get involved in a brawl almost cost Taylor her world title during a brutal fifth round. Somehow, she stayed on her feet despite a number of blows to the body and face. As a dazed-looking Taylor staggered back to her stool at the end of the round, it looked like this might be a fight too far.
However, what was to follow was remarkable. There was still a vacant look in Taylor’s eyes for most of the sixth, but she was able to gain a measure of control towards the end of it and she began to assert her own authority on the bout in the closing rounds.
‘I don’t think I was as hurt as people may think,’ Taylor said of that fifth round. ‘I wasn’t worried. I obviously knew that was a tough, tough round for me, but I wasn’t concerned. I was okay. I was stable coming back to the corner, I just had to regroup and reset and I actually won the round after it.’
Taylor feels the resilience and resolve that she displayed in turning the fight around came from the long hours in the gym in the sleepy town of Vernon in Connecticut, where she works with Enamait.
‘The courage and strength goes back to those moments, the hard work I put in in the training camp over the last few months. It is in those moments that the hard work pays off. I don’t just show courage on fight night, I show courage every single day in training. That is why you train hard, for those moments in the trenches.’
Enamait, sitting beside his fighter, put Taylor’s comeback in more succinct terms. ‘She is built different. She has got balls of steel. I don’t know what else to call it,’ the American proclaimed, which brought a soft laugh from Taylor.
The fighter conceded that she brought much of the trouble in the middle rounds on herself. ‘I thought I was boxing very well in the early rounds and I just got stuck in a fight with her. I can’t say that she did anything differently. I just love a tear-up every now and then.’
That was obvious in the final 60 seconds too, as the pair stood in the centre of the ring, slugging it out in a scene that seemed to come from the Rocky movies. At the end of the pulsating fight, the two boxers embraced warmly, both knowing that they had taken the sport to new heights.
Taylor added: ‘I think the best bit of the journey is that I have been able to inspire young girls, inspire the next generation. I think myself and Amanda have broken down so many barriers over the last few years.’
Taylor will turn 36 this summer and questions will be asked as to how much more punishment she can sustain in these battles, especially given her penchant for a ‘tear-up’. But there is still one peak that she has yet to scale.
It will be 50 years this July that Muhammad Ali came to Dublin and graced the Croker stage. Having created a fight that evoked Ali-Frazier, it would feel appropriate if Katie Taylor fought in Croke Park to mark that anniversary.
From one Greatest to another, it would provide a fitting end to the most remarkable story in Irish sport.