KATIE ‘IN BEST SHAPE EVER!’
TAYLOR A CLASS ABOVE US FIGHTER
KATIE TAYLOR insists she has never been in better condition as she puts her IBF and WBA lightweight titles on the line against Kimberly Connor of the US in London’s O2 Arena tonight.
Taylor is expected to deal with the challenge of the experienced American with relative ease, the Bray woman’s world title defence being the third card on a bill that is headlined by Dillian Whyte’s heavyweight clash with former WBO champion Joe Parker.
Taylor tipped the scales at 9st 8lbs and 3oz, just over 2lbs heavier than her opponent at yesterday’s weigh-in.
‘I’m in the best shape and form of my life,’ Taylor claimed earlier this week ahead of her 10th professional bout. I think this is a great opportunity for me to box again in London. I know that my opponent is going to bring her best but that in effect is going to bring out the best in me.’
Connor is a mandatory challenger, despite losing three of her 18 fights to date and having been inactive for much of the past three years. Taylor is predicted to deal with her comfortably and has already pencilled in her next title defence against Cindy Serrano in Chicago this October, but she dismisses the idea of being focused on that challenge.
‘I’m not thinking about October at all. I don’t overlook any opponent. The time I overlook someone is the time I become complacent. I prepare for every fight the same way, which means I have prepared for this fight as if it will be the toughest I have ever had.’
Connor has fought for the world title before, losing to Victoria Noelia Bustos in Buenos Aires. Taylor relieved the Argentine of the IBF belt in Brooklyn last April.
Eddie Hearn, Taylor’s promoter, says the bout in Chicago isn’t written in stone and they are also looking at a possible bout in Boston later in October.
‘If all goes well in this bout, she will fight Cindy Serrano next. We were looking at October 6 in Chicago, but she could also box in Boston on October 20, instead. I expect Katie to win this bout — and win in style,’ Hearn said.
‘Connor has never seen anything like this and she will be fighting in front of 20,000 people. She’s the mandatory challenger and world level but I think she will get stopped in this fight.’
Hearn revealed that his camp had hoped to have another unification bout this evening but Connor was put forward as the mandatory challenger.
Also on the card is Craig O’Brien, the light-heavyweight from Dublin, who will put his unbeaten record of 8-0 on the line against highly-rated English prospect Anthony Fowler, also undefeated. O’Brien, who got his life back on track after a spell in Mountjoy Prison, is 9-1 outsider but he reckons that he will surprise plenty of people in London’s O2 Arena.
His bout is likely to be the third on Sky Sports Box Office’s payper-view broadcast with Taylor expected to do her ring-walk at around 9.15pm. THERE was no love lost between Dillian Whyte and Joseph Parker at yesterday’s weigh-in ahead of their bout at the O2 Arena, the winner of which will stay in contention for a world title fight.
Parker, who tipped the scales at 17st 4lbs 8oz, is the slight favourite with the bookmakers.
But for Whyte (18st 6lbs 9oz), this is another crescendo at the end of a ‘long, hard, painful’ journey to the top of the sport.
‘When I was growing up I never knew I would even be alive at this age,’ he claims.
Having grown up in Jamaica alongside his father, the heavyweight moved to England as a teenager to rejoin his mother and siblings.
‘I never even had a fridge in Jamaica... I never had money to buy sweets… we had to go to a little place to get water from a little tank,’ he remembers.
Whyte is one of 12 children (‘I don’t think my parents had a TV when they were young’) but still his mother refuses to put her feet up.
‘I tried to get her to stop working but… she comes from hardworking stock, she will work until she can’t work anymore. She’s a nurse and she likes helping people,’ Whyte says.
Whyte is defending his WBC Silver heavyweight title, whilst the vacant WBO International heavyweight title is also on the line.