Phelan fighting fit for title tilt
Ireland’s youngest female pro boxer is an unknown but tonight could be stepping stone for next Katie Taylor
“A baby lion is still a lion.” Katelynn Phelan, October, 2020
THE bullying began after she started boxing. Except Katelynn Phelan never boxed bullies.
You see, when you’re a fighter, not only do you need to know how to punch, you’ve got to know when too.
“Everyone used to say to me, ‘You’re a fighter, why not punch them?’ But it doesn’t work like that. Because then it turns around. Suddenly, I’m the bad person because you then become the person who hits people.
“I was thinking of the long run. I relied on my discipline. They can lose control with their emotions. But I couldn’t. I knew things would get settled. I had people who were important around me too, backing up my confidence with good messages.”
She was just 11.
She is 20 now, and tonight Ireland’s youngest pro fighter could be a champion of the world. Another contender her country knows nothing about.
Some say she isn’t ready. She reckons she’s been ready her entire life. If not now, when?
Better to have gloved and lost… Phelan may be but 3-0 in her pro career but she has spent more than half her life inside the ropes.
And now she goes into the lion’s den. Then again, as she reminds me, a baby lion is still a lion.
Three belts are on the line - the WBC Youth title, the WBF title, and the WIBA title – against German-Ukrainian sensation Jessica Schadko in her own CPI gym in the Munich suburb of Donauwoerth.
When Phelan walks out to the “Imperial March” from Star Wars, drowned out by boos and catcalls from
the 100 or so local diners supporting their local hero, she will already have had to overcome so many obstacles.
They will have changed hotels last night, for one thing, to avoid any unexpected fire alarms. They will bring their own food and drink and, even though their hand wraps will be precise, they will expect an instruction to tortuously unwrap and start again.
“They’ll throw everything they can at us,” says Phelan, who first donned gloves in the St Brigid’s Gym in Kildare. “I know this is a massive risk but I decided I wanted to be a pro at a
young age and that was a massive risk.
“I wanted to be a world champion sooner rather than later, a lot of fighters have thousands of excuses to turn title fights down. I needed to take this opportunity. If I don’t take it now, when might it come around?”
A girl in a hurry. She didn’t lick it from the stones. Brother Allan is a pro; Niall a coach; her mum and dad are qualified coaches too and nearly 100 Irish title winners at all age levels – most of them female – have passed through their ranks. Phelan laughs when reminded that her dad did not want his daughter to be one of them.
And so Phelan, beginning her short but busy life-time experience of defying convention, went behind her dad’s back and asked the head coach in the gym for lessons.
She was just seven. Fearless. “When I was a little girl, everyone always said little girls can’t box. That’s what you’d hear. So I defied my parents. I used to be kept at home by my mum. But when my dad saw me, he knew I was as good as the boys.”
And she was. A European Junior bronze medal in 2015, another bronze two years later at the World Youth Championships. Nine Irish titles.
But despite her success, there was a time where she stopped loving the game.
“It’s drilled into you about the Olympics but that style didn’t really suit me at all. Being up on your toes, punching and moving. I just love fighting, you know? I started to fall out of love with it. Maybe I was destined to be a pro all my life.”
And so the defiant one breached convention once more, slapping down pro forms on the family breakfast table one morning. Her parent’s instincts said no. By the time the dishes were cleared, Paddy was filling in the forms required to be her coach.
Defiance
“I just love the fact you can control your own training. And then when you get through the ropes, you’re all alone. Nothing else matters, only you and your opponent. You’re in control. I love punching someone, and the feeling of getting your hand raised.”
She debuted on a bill broadcast by TG4 last year – uniquely, alongside brother Allan – but this title tilt has been most unexpected, coming as it does so early in her career.
“It is unprecedented,” says her manager, Leonard Gunning, of Boxing Ireland Promotions. “Most fighters can wait years for a chance like this, to go from nowhere into the top echelons of the world.”
Katie Taylor was an idol growing up, so too legendary US fighter Heather Hardy. She feels this is her time.
She has pictured it all. Working with performance coach Alan Heary in Dublin, she is convinced, as all fistic philosophers have been through the ages, that she will win.
“It’s nice to know that after this fight, everyone will know who I am. It doesn’t bother me now that I don’t have a profile. I know what I can do.
“I have confidence in myself. I can see the belt around my waist and my shoulders. Defeat is not in my mind. I know, deep down, that I will win.” Watch the fight stream live at http://live.bgb-movie.de/