Backlash over blogger’s ‘British’ Katie tweet
An American boxing pundit has unwittingly unleashed the wrath of the people of Ireland with a tweet asking who is flying the British flag better – Katie Taylor or Anthony Joshua?
The Las-Vegas-based blogger with the Twitter handle @BoxingKindgom14 posed the question some days prior to Katie’s win over Kimberly Connor in the O2 Arena in London on Saturday night, when the Bray boxer retained her WBA and IBF titles.
The replies to the gaffe were many, but none captured the mood of a nation quite so succinctly as the simple: ‘she’s Irish, ye dopes ye’.
Boxing Kingdom explained that they mistakenly believed that being represent- ed by Englishman Eddie Hearns meant that Katie had switched the tricolour for the union jack.
While she would have been eligible to represent the UK, with her father being from Leeds, Katie proudly flew the Irish flag for her two Olympic outings as well as numerous European and World titles.
This wouldn’t be the first time that the Bray woman’s nationality has been mistaken.
Sky Sports’ Jo Wilson and Craig Slater both claimed her as theirs last year, and the Daily Telegraph was forced to apologise for a similar error some years ago.