IRELAND’S golden girl Katie Taylor has been backed to show she is still the queen of the lightweight division by successfully defending the title she won in London four years ago.
The Bray woman has had a difficult six months by her own incredibly high standards, suffering two defeats and only securing her place at the Rio Games at the final stage.
Taylor’s previous air of invincibility has been diminished somewhat after she lost to the tall, awkward Azeri Yana Alekseevna – her first defeat since 2011 - at the European qualifiers in April.
Just two months later she was edged out by Frenchwoman Estelle Mossely at the World Championships in Baku, her bid for a sixth title in-a-row ending at the semi-final stage.
There is no doubt the other top women in her weight class have narrowed the gap, but former Irish head coach Billy Walsh and Taylor’s London 2012 team-mate John Joe Nevin have both backed her to prove she is still the best in Brazil.
The 30-year-old makes her Rio Olympics bow against Finland’s Mira Potkonen at Riocentro this afternoon (3pm) and, after a disappointing campaign for the Irish boxers so far, she carries the hopes of a nation on her shoulders.
“I don’t think it’s that she’s performing badly,” said Nevin, who won a bantamweight silver medal four years ago.
“Katie’s a tremendous boxer still, it’s just the other boxers are getting better and people maybe don’t realise that until they box Katie.
“Automatically then people say Katie’s falling behind – it’s not that, it’s just that other boxers are catching up with her. But I think she can still definitely win gold.”
Walsh shared Nevin’s sentiments, suggesting any difficulties Taylor had in rediscovering top form were “minimal”.
He said: “Losing her record has probably dented her confidence in some way.
“But I watched those fights, and there isn’t a whole lot wrong. It’s very minimal. There’s maybe a few technical things, but she would still be my favourite to win gold again.
“In many ways it could be a blessing in disguise for her. Sometimes if you keep winning you never look at yourself. Now she knows she needs to improve, even though it’s only very minimal and she has it within her armoury to get back to winning ways.”
Walsh – now in charge of Team USA after his acrimonious exit from the Irish job last year – could yet find himself plotting Taylor’s downfall.
The Wexford man has overseen a very positive Olympic Games for the USA team so far, and American lightweight hope Mikaela Mayer, who faces the tricky Russian Anastasia Belnyakova tonight, would love to meet Taylor in Friday’s final.
It’s the kind of match-up Walsh dreads – “it would probably be like an out of body experience” – but one he is ready for.
“They’re light years apart in terms of experience,” he said.
“Mikaela can only hope to be anywhere near her to be honest. Katie is a legend in the sport now, has a fantastic array of skills and conditioning that we’d only hope to be able to achieve.
“If it ever happens, we’ll be out there trying to do our best. But we’ve a big fight ahead of us, we have Russia for a medal, so that’s massive.”
