Pete Taylor guided his daughter to Olympic gold – but partnership came to an abrupt end
PETE Taylor became one of the most recognisable faces in Ireland as he guided his daughter Katie to world dominance in women’s boxing, culminating in her historic gold medal performance at the London Olympics in 2012.
But less than nine months out from the Rio Olympics of 2016 their training partnership came to an unexpectedly abrupt end. In the ring Katie endured a horrid 2016 surrendering her World and Olympic titles.
Following the Olympics she announced she was turning professional, and signed for the Eddie Hearn Matchroom organisation in the UK. Even though she has only fought on nine occasions in the pro game, she has already won the IBF and WBA World professional lightweight titles.
However, her father now has no role in her career; she is trained by Connecticutbased Ross Enamait and her Irish manager is Meathbased Brian Peters. Katie is currently in the US training for her next fight, which is likely to take place in the UK in July.
Pete Taylor has continued his career as a coach and is currently training a number of fighters – Luke Keeler, David Oliver Joyce, Gary Cully and Sean Turner – who are connected to the controversial MTK gym. There is no suggestions that any of the men are involved in criminality, but the MTK gym has longstanding links to prominent members of the Kinahan cartel.
In recent years, Pete Taylor split from his wife, and has recently been in a relationship with a businesswoman.
He recently spoke about his relationship with Karen Brown – who at 30, is 26 years his junior – and together they launched a boxing-inspired business venture, Club Box.
Taylor was born in Leeds and came to Dublin in 1975 when he was 16 to work in an amusement arcade in Bray. While his parents returned to the UK, he decided to put down roots in Ireland, though he did return home briefly to complete his education.
Taylor had done some boxing in England, and took up the sport again when he settled in Ireland. His own career climaxed in 1986 when he won an Irish Intermediate title.
It was through her father’s involvement in the sport that Katie became a boxer, which at the time was regarded as an ‘off-limit’ sport for women in Ireland.
On his way to training in Enniskerry Boxing club, he used to drop Katie to athletics training. One night the athletic training was cancelled due to bad weather and Katie went to the boxing gym in Enniskerry instead.
“I remember the night well,” recalled Pete years later. “It was my last year boxing and I was getting ready for the All-Irelands. I looked around at one stage and Katie was inside the ring sparring with one of the lads. She had no gum shield or anything but she loved it straight away.”
Having reached the mandatory retirement age of 35, Taylor had to hang up his boxing gloves. He decided to set up a new boxing club, St Fergal’s, based in Bray.
The first three members were his children – Peter, Lee and Katie. At the time there were no officially sanctioned competitions for women boxers in Ireland.
In the early years of her career her father would tuck Katie’s hair under her headgear and she would be
listed in the programme as ‘K Taylor’ as she boxed boys in underage tournaments.
Before long her reputation spread, but it was not until October 31, 2001, that the first-ever sanctioned women’s boxing contest took place in the National Stadium.
Katie, who was also an accomplished soccer player and capped for Ireland, had her first official win on that show. Guided by her father, her career took off at international level when she won her first European title in 2005.
Pete sold his electrical business in order to devote himself full-time to coaching Katie while she dropped out of UCD.
There was initial disappointment when the International Olympic Committee turned down a request to include women’s boxing on the programme.
But the Taylors pressed on and for the next decade Katie and her father were the headline act across the world stage in women’s amateur boxing winning five World Championship, six European Championship and five European Union Championships.