Our golden girl hits all right notes to win her place at Croker
IF we can give Garth Brooks five nights in Croke Park this year, we can surely give Katie Taylor one.
For starters, the singer has never won a Woman’s Lightweight Boxing gold medal for Ireland at the Olympics.
And despite what modern medical science could do, the Country star is unlikely to do so aged 60.
Katie, on the other hand, has won Olympic Gold for Ireland and represented us on the world stage as a brilliant athlete, a fabulous ambassador and a top-class human being.
And there’s also every chance she could belt out a convincing version of Friends In Low Places if called upon to do so.
Most of us will have missed her fight in Madison Square Garden in the early hours of yesterday morning, due to it being on at Stupid O’clock in the morning.
But watching the highlights and reading the reports, it was another brilliant performance by the Bray woman who can be counted as amongst the All-time Greatest in Irish sport.
Boxing’s had a rough ride in Ireland in recent years, thanks largely to the involvement of gangsters who tried to hijack a great, if often tarnished and tawdry sport. Katie’s brilliant win in New York could hardly have come at a better time, just a few short weeks after US law enforcement agencies started cleaning house.
Ireland has always had a love of boxing and a great tradition in the Noble Art.
Every generation needs a hero and inspiration, my own had Barry Mcguigan, a brilliant fighter and a class act, this generation has Katie Taylor. I myself was lucky enough to spend some time with Katie and her family (in a small way) for a TV boxing show a good few years ago and it was clear she didn’t pick up her decency, class and determination by accident.
There should be no obstacles to Katie getting the biggest night of her life in Croke Park sometime this year or may in 2023, for the rematch with the very impressive Amanda Serrano.
It would be a fitting climax to a towering career.