My fight with Katie is part of history
ALANNA RECALLS GROUNDBREAKING CLASH WITH TAYLOR
WHEN Katie Taylor made history in the ring at the London 2012 Olympics, there was one old friend in the crowd at the ExCel Arena who was particularly emotional.
Eleven years earlier, Alanna Audley had touched gloves with Taylor in Dublin’s National Stadium.
Audley was 16, Taylor just 15. It was significant because it was a groundbreaking moment for the sport.
That was something acknowledged by Taylor in the press conference after her Olympic final — mentioning that night in the Stadium and describing Audley as one of her best friends.
These days she’s Alanna Nihell and is looking forward to celebrating the 20th anniversary of that fight on October 31.
“We were part of history, Katie and me. The first sanctioned fight in Ireland for female fighters,’’ said Nihell.
Years
“It will be part of history, still be talked about in 100 years time. I’ll be telling my grandkids I was part of it.
“Look at women’s boxing now compared to where it was then. Where will it be in 20 years’ time, or 100 years’ time?
“It was always a male-dominated sport so to be part of that change is special. To me, it’s not women’s boxing, it’s just boxing. We’re part of boxing.
“I’m still friends with Katie. We travelled the world together with Ireland teams and it’s great to see her smashing down barriers. It’s brilliant to see what she’s done and she’s still the same girl that I met 20 years ago.”
It’s well documented by now that the young protege from Wicklow would hide her long hair under a headguard and register to fight boys under the name ‘K Taylor’.
Boxing was very much part of T Taylor’s l ’f family il hi history — Nih Nihell ll f fell ll into it more by accident.
“Honest to God, I did not see myself boxing. I danced. Disco dancing, Irish dancing....The reason I got into boxing was just to get fit.
Start
“The first time I turned up at the club with my cousin, Nicola, we were turned away. They’d never seen girls there before.
“At the start, I was just watching the boys train. I had a fear of making mistakes but then I did a bit of training.
“Got a bit of confidence from that and had my first spar. Landed a punch. The coaches were looking at each other going ‘oh, she can hit’.
“Boxing gyms are a very male environment but it didn’t bother me. I think that’s down to my mother, a strong Sandy Row woman. That attitude tit was passed on to me.
““There were no girls to fight in Belfast B or the North, but I was told l that there was a girl from Bray that I could fight and I just wanted to do it. North against south, it would be brilliant.
“There was a bit of hype around it. We did an interview on the radio for RTE together and there was a big crowd in the National Stadium.
“But, once the bell goes, you forget about all that.”
Taylor won the fight with ‘ The Fields of Athenry’ blared out to greet her victory.
Nihell is a proud Linfield fan but hearing a Celtic anthem that night wouldn’t have bothered her.
“I come from Sandy Row and it’s a strong loyalist place, but my mother sent me to the first integrated school in Northern Ireland,’’ she said.
“I remember going into school on Ash Wednesday and some of the other kids would have crosses on their foreheads — I’d be going
A CRUCIAL D Alanna Audley Stadium two d month in the fi Ireland for fem
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(r ‘what’s that for?’
“It never bothered me if one was Catholic or Prote My mum and dad gre through the Troubles, born in 1985 and, even i mary school, we’d play Ca schools at hockey and never think about religion
“I’d go on to have friend what were red zone areas Troubles but, to me, they just other human beings.
“Boxing is great like th Belfast for crossing over ba It happened with Carl Fram happened with Barry McG before him.
“You go into Holy Trinity ing Club and it has a Ca name but there’d be fighter all religions there.
“I boxed for Ireland and proud to box for Ireland. proud to fight with the tri