KATIE LANDS BIG WIN!
Taylor on course for world title shot after clinical American debut
WICKLOW’S Katie Taylor improved her professional record to 6-0 with a comprehensive thirdround stoppage of American Jasmine Clarkson last weekend.
Taylor entered her US debut as the overwhelming favourite and after three lopsided rounds, Clarkson’s corner mercifully waved the fight off before the fourth round could begin, with the 22-year-old southpaw thoroughly outclassed as Taylor dominated from bell to bell.
From the beginning of the fight Taylor marched forward and peppered Clarkson with a series of combinations that immediately exposed the gulf in class between the Olympic Gold medalist and the 4-9 fighter.
The second and third rounds largely followed a similar suit with Taylor punishing Clarkson with a series of shots from the body, to the head, then back to the body before returning to the head, often without Clarkson firing anything in return.
The win marked Taylor’s first successful defence of her WBA female Inter-Continental lightweight title with the Bray native now in line to challenge for a world title later this year, with Taylor’s manager Brian Peters previously stating that the plan is for the 31-year-old to challenge for a world title in Dublin in November.
However, since Katie’s victory, the manager of Jessica McCaskill has emerged to criticise the Bray boxer and her management team for not contacting him in relation to the difficulties surrounding finding a fighter for Katie.
“We definitely want to fight Katie,” said Ricardo Ramos.
“They’ve brought up Jessica’s name three or four times in a couple of different articles, especially in The Irish Times this morning. But we just haven’t gotten a phonecall.
“Worse still, the girl she fought in Brooklyn on Saturday – Jasmine Clarkson – was our opponent first, and then they outpaid her! Jasmine cancelled on us and went to Brooklyn to fight Katie instead.
“So I was definitely a little bothered by that, and all this talk in articles that she couldn’t find an opponent because nobody would step up, I don’t believe that’s true.
“We’ve tried to make that fight with Katie a couple of times,” he added.
This could get very interesting.