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Katie Taylor made for boxing

By
CATHAL DERVAN,
Irish Voice Newspaper Columnist

Published Wednesday, March 17, 2010, 9:31 AM
Updated Wednesday, March 17, 2010, 9:48 AM

 

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How appropriate -- the First Lady of Boxing as a guest of the other First Lady in the White House on St. Patrick’s Day.

Katie Taylor will be in the House on St. Patrick’s Day, and that is significant. Not alone is this girl the best female boxer in the world, she is probably one of the best Irish sports stars out there at present.

The world lightweight champion is right up there with Brian O’Driscoll, Robbie Keane and Padraig Harrington as a shining example of the talent this little country can produce.

And she’s there against all the odds, a young girl whose father first entered her in competition as K. Taylor -- and the boys she beat only discovered she was a girl when the head gear came off!

She has revolutionized female boxing not just in Ireland but in Europe. She was the amateur game’s boxer of the year in 2008.

And she goes to the Olympic Games in London in 2012 as Ireland’s brightest hope for a gold medal in many years.

Katie Taylor was born to box. She grew up watching her father Pete shadow boxing in the family kitchen, all the time copying his moves, matching his punches, throwing the shapes that serve her so well in the ring to this day.

“Boxing is in our blood,” she readily admits to the Irish Voice.

“From an early age I can remember watching my dad training in the kitchen of the house, and he used to bring us down to the gym in Bray to watch him train.

“I was going there from the age of six or seven and I was always fascinated by it. He’d have the gloves on in the house, messing with my two brothers Peter and Lee, and I was always trying to join in.

“I was a bit of a tomboy. I was never girly, girly. I always knew how to throw a punch, even before I first went up to the boxing club in Bray at about 10 years of age.

“That first night I was straight in the ring, sparring with the lads. It was a male world then, there weren’t any other girls boxing at all, but I was the coach’s daughter so there obviously wasn’t much problem with me going there.

“I don’t know what was said about me at the time and it didn’t matter -- I just wanted to box. It was so natural. It just felt like I belonged that night.

“As soon as I got in the ring I just loved it. I couldn’t get enough of it that first night, and it’s been like that ever since.”

Dad Pete has been a constant in his daughter’s sporting life. Trainer, confidant, coach and father -- he does all that with little or no fuss as the Taylors hatch a plan for Olympic domination two years from now.

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