Katie well set for her next step towards sporting greatness
AS she closes out her second full year as a professional boxer, Katie Taylor is on the threshold of achieving greatness.
So long the ‘First Lady’ of women’s amateur boxing, she is poised to do likewise in the less competitive, though far more financially lucrative, world of professional fighting as she counts down the hours to her historic debut in New York’s Madison Square Garden tonight.
The outcome of Taylor’s 12th professional fight against Finland’s Eva Wahlstrom looks a foregone conclusion, even though the 38-year old opponent is the current WBC World super featherweight champion and is unbeaten in her 23 professional fights. Taylor is 1/40 with the Irish bookies.
But it only takes a momentary lapse in concentration or a rogue punch to change a fight and Taylor must be on her guard against an opponent she had the measure of when they met during their amateur careers.
It is a tribute to her consummate professionalism though that despite her success her standards never drop.
Former Irish coach Billy Walsh once remarked that if the male boxers in the IABA High Performance programme had showed as much dedication as Katie they would have also won Olympic gold medals too.
Taylor’s life revolves around boxing, her family and faith. There are no outside distractions, which impressed Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn when she became the first female boxer to link up with his organisation in late 2016.
For most of the year she is based in a nondescript Connecticut town called Vernon, whose most notable claim to fame is that the singer Gene Pitney was born nearby. Taylor’s trainer Ross Enamait, who has coached her since she turned professional, is based there. In Ross Whitaker’s excellent documentary film ‘Katie,’ which chartered her progress since turning professional, we got a glimpse of just how solitary her life is.
She lives alone in an apartment and other than training, eating and sleeping does little else. She eschewed her usual trip home to Bray after her facile victory over Cindy Serrano in October and went straight back to Vernon to prepare for her much heralded debut in arguably the most iconic boxing venue in the world.
As six-weight World champion Oscar Da La Hoya declared at the final press conference: “If you haven’t fought at the Garden you haven’t made it.”
Da La Hoya’s company Golden Boy are promoting the show which is headlined by Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez who is also making his MSG Garden. They are not hyping the Taylor– Wahlstrom fight.
It is the seventh last fight on a jam packed programme which begins at 8pm BST time with Katie likely to be in the ring shortly after 11pm, which facilitates Sky TV who are showing the fight live in the UK and Ireland.
All the pressure is on Taylor, who is defending her WBA and IBF lightweight titles for the third time. Regardless of the outcome, Wahlstrom will keep her world belt as well as securing the biggest pay cheque in her career. “This is really a case of ‘nothing to lose, world to win,” said her manager Petri Paimander.
Taylor’s range of shots, the speed of her punches and her excellent footwork is likely to see her dominate the 10 round contest though the decision may go to the judges.
Katie Taylor v Eva Wahlstrom for the WBA and IBF world lightweight titles, 11pm Sky Sports
Just three weeks before one of the biggest nights of his career Carl Frampton enjoyed a fireside chat with the man for whom he admits his ring success would never have been possible. At 80 years of age Billy McKee has decided it is time to leave the sport which has given him great memories and personal satisfaction for how it has changed so many lives.
Frampton and McKee gelled from the moment a skinny little seven-year-old walked through the doors of the Midland Boxing Club in Tigers Bay at the behest of his mother Flo. Next Saturday night the veteran coach is expecting the perfect Christmas present when Frampton seeks to wrench the IBF World featherweight title away from champion Josh Warrington in the Manchester Arena.
Their relationship goes beyond boxing as a deep friendship developed over the 17 years the Jackal was in the club and McKee remains a mentor and confidant to the 31-year-old, who won Irish and Ulster senior titles as well as EU silver and multi nations gold before turning professional.
“I talk to him like he’s one of my sons, he knows that I’m always here for him,” said McKee, who knew from the start there was something special about the former world champion.
“I remember his first spar... afterwards I turned to a guy, who just recently reminded me of it, and said ‘we have something to work with here for the next few years’. Carl was a bit like myself when he was young, everybody looked like a giant. He was tiny but the one thing that stood out in the spar was that he never took a step back.
“It didn’t matter who he would spar... a lot of kids when you tell them who they’re sparring or boxing they’ll ask you ‘What age is he? How many fights has he?’ That is natural apprehension but Carl never asked me or anyone in the club who am I fighting or anything about them.
“He was an exception. “The problem was he always wanted to fight and not box. The hardest thing was to get him to box because he’s a better boxer than he is a fighter. He always had great reflexes and footwork. A coach can do certain things but some things are natural. He always wanted to go to war and he lost contests because he didn’t listen to instruction.
“But he was always a good trainer. When he got a bit older he did a couple of things, he would have sneaked into The Alex for a drink but I knew. The guys from the area would have let me know. You can’t expect boys to be saints but you need to know what’s going on.
“He was a very quiet kid and wouldn’t have said too much and he was a good kid — he didn’t bring any trouble to the door of Flo and Craig. The tough part was that he loved to eat so making light-flyweight and flyweight
❝ I talk to him (Carl Frampton) like he’s one of my sons, he knows that I’m always here for him
wasn’t easy but he never missed the weight as an amateur.”
While Frampton naturally stands out as the club’s star pupil, McKee insists that since co-founding Midland in 1974 along with brothers Ken and Norman Rafferty, among others, it is the character-building impact of being a member of Midland on the lives of many lads in a tough neighbourhood that gives him great satisfaction.
“The Troubles were very bad at the time, there was rioting every night and some of the older folk came to me and a few other guys and said the area needed a club set up so we rent- ed the rooms for £4.50 a week. We had a wee football club going but it faded away because we had no money. So the boxing took over and we all mucked in to keep it going and do the coaching,” added McKee.
“That’s why sometimes I feel embarrassed when people always just mention my name when they talk about Midland because there have been a lot of people who have kept it going.
“We had no money, no funding so it was all about making do — in fact there was a house just across from the club that we would rent out for showers and toilets.
“The great thing about boxing is the discipline that it brings to working-class lads who could easily go down the wrong path. To the best of my knowledge of all the boys who have boxed at this club not one of them have got into trouble with the police. The biggest achievement you can have is getting kids off the street, getting them into a job and keeping them out of trouble. What’s the point of having a world champion if the rest of the boys are doing drugs or whatever.
“I think of a couple of guys like John Dallas who has his own business and Mitch Wells who has gone to university... am I proud of Carl Frampton? Yes. Am I proud of John Dallas? Yes. It’s the same pride.
“Generally, there’s very few