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Rio-bound Katie Taylor suffers shock defeat in World Championships

Olympic champion Katie Taylor suffered a shock defeat to France's Estelle Mossely at the World Championships
Olympic champion Katie Taylor suffered a shock defeat to France's Estelle Mossely at the World Championships Olympic champion Katie Taylor suffered a shock defeat to France's Estelle Mossely at the World Championships

IRISH golden girl Katie Taylor suffered a shock second defeat in a matter of months as her bid for a sixth World Championship title in-a-row ended in a split decision loss to Estelle Mossely in the semi-finals in Astana.

Having secured a spot at the Rio Olympics with her win in the last round, the Bray boxer had her eye on gold but her French rival got the nod on a 2-1 scoreline.

Lightweight Taylor was hoping to join Dublin’s Kellie Harrington, who progressed to the light-welterweight final with an impressive win over Canada’s Sara Cali earlier in the day, in tomorrow’s finals sessions.

Mossely, who had beaten Taylor's Olympic qualifier conqueror Yana Alekseevna in the quarter-finals, took the initiative from the start and tagged the 2012 Olympic champion with a couple of shots.

Taylor responded by landing some decent jabs that impressed the judges, who gave her the first round 10:9.

The 29-year-old got in close to Mossely in the second, and seemed to have done enough to edge it but two of the judges awarded the round to the Frenchwoman.

By the third round Mossely - who had lost to Taylor on each of their three previous meetings, including at the European Games last summer - looked to be in control.

Yet the judges all read 10-9 to Taylor, meaning that Mossely would have to chase the final round.

Taylor appeared to have done enough to take the fourth and earned a place in the decider, but two of the judges gave the round to Mossely.

With their scorecards now level at 38-38 apiece, both awarded the fight to the French fighter, over-ruling the judge who gave all four rounds to Taylor.