TITLE FIGHT HELPS KATIE COPE WITH ‘TOUGH TIME FOR FAMILY’
KATIE TAYLOR, who comfortably retained her WBA and IBF world titles on Saturday night, has revealed that preparing for the contest helped her cope in the aftermath of last month’s tragic shooting incident at Bray Boxing Club, in which her father Pete was seriously wounded.
Taylor’s Connecticut-based trainer Ross Enamait played a key role in keeping her focused.
“I was very happy to have the fight to focus on,” she said moments after dispatching Kimberly Connor early in the third round of their scheduled 10-round title fight in London’s O2 Arena. “Ross was incredible during that time. Obviously, it was a tough time for the family but thankfully everything is ok.”
After her 10th win on the spin in 20 months as a professional, Taylor – who suffered bad bruising under her right eye despite the brevity and one-sided nature of the contest – returned home to Bray for a short break.
However, she will be back in her American base next week to embark on a new training camp ahead of her next fight, against American Cindy Serrano, which is scheduled for Chicago on October 6.
According to her manager, Brian Peters, that will be the first of two fights in the United States before the end of this year.
SUPERSTAR
The prospect of a mega fight against the ‘First Lady’ of professional boxing, Cecilia Braekhus, is also being explored by Taylor’s management team as they ratchet up efforts to turn her into a world superstar.
She added: “It could be a huge fight – the first pay-per-view fight in women’s boxing. I’ve said from the start that I want to fight all the big names in the sport and Cecilia has obviously done incredible things for women’s boxing over the past few years.
“Pound-for-pound, she is the number one boxer in the world and I want to be at the top of that list.”
The planned showdown against the undefeated Braekhus is not likely to take place until the end of 2019 and is dependent on the Colombian-born, Norwegian-based superstar – who is the current lineal champion of the welterweight division – dropping seven pounds.
“Katie is willing to move up five to box at 140lbs but Braekhus has to drop 7lbs,” said Peters.
Taylor’s latest win was her quickest since stopping Karina Kopinska after 50 seconds of the third round in her first pro fight.
Referee Steve Gray brought proceedings to a halt after one minute and 43 seconds of the third round on Saturday night after Taylor repeatedly caught Connor with a barrage of body and head shots, including a monstrous right hand which landed flush on her opponent’s jaw.
Even though the 20,000 sell-out crowd were enthralled by the power of Taylor, there was no disguising the fact that Saturday night’s fight was a mismatch.
The insistence on the part of the International Boxing Federation that the Bray pugilist face a mandatory title defence against an opponent who was patently out of her depth was sheer folly.
“It’s all politics,” admitted Peters. “It was the IBF mandatory; we had to fight. Katie won’t be giving up any of the belts.”
For the first time, Katie admitted that securing all four belts in the lightweight division was no longer her major ambition.
“The worst thing about women’s boxing is the politics and the different organisations,” said Taylor. “There should be just one champion in every weight division, really.
“It’s like (Vasyl) Lomachenko. He wants to become the undisputed champion, but nobody is willing to face him. Sometimes that happens but I also know that it’s important to be involved in big fights as well.
“I now have the Cindy Serrano fight. These are the fights I want to be involved in. If I can’t get all the belts, so be it.”
Serrano (36) is the WBO featherweight champion, so she will be jumping two weight divisions for her October showdown against Taylor. She is an older sister of five-weight world champion Amanda Serrano – another probable Taylor opponent.
RIVALRY
The rivalry between the Bray pugilist and Brooklyn-based sisters is building nicely. Shortly after Taylor’s fight on Saturday night, Amanda Serrano tweeted: “This is how it looked when I stopped Kimberly Connor. I didn’t
need the ref’s help.” The tweet was accompanied by a picture of Connor on the canvas as the referee stopped their world title fight in the second round in 2011.
Not to be outdone, however, Taylor won the first round of the verbal war. Referring to her forthcoming fight against Cindy Serraro, she quipped: “I think the clash of styles makes for a very exciting fight and afterwards we’ll get the other sister, or else, if she wants to fight on the same night, I can do that as well. Why not.”
Suggestions that the referee should have let the fight continue until Connor hit the canvas were greeted by an emphatic response from Taylor’s trainer.
“She would have f***ing killed her,” said Enamait. “The power came through, she legitimately hurt her, no way she could have gone on.”
Connor – who earned a reported career-high purse of $10,000 (€8,600) – declined to speak to the press after the fight.
However, she did visit the Taylor dressing room to offer her personal congratulations. The 37-year-old mother-of-three looked in awe of her opponent and this contest may well have been her swansong in professional boxing.