SHE may be undisputed champion of the world, a star on the global stage, but the nerves are still there for Katie Taylor. Now 33 and closer to the end than the beginning, it’s safe to assume they will be for whatever the remainder of the journey brings.
Her tired body trembled before a weary arm was raised in victory at Madison Square Garden last month, 10 rounds of bloody hell against Belgium’s non-stop cop Delfine Persoon leaving her lofty ambitions on the brink before a majority decision call.
Then there was London’s ExCel Arena on August 9, 2012. Inside the changing rooms, the noise easily penetrated the cool white walls as the anticipation of a nation desperate to see its golden girl crowned seeped under the door.
As ever, she didn’t disappoint. Throughout her entire career between the ropes, Taylor has broken down barriers, carrying history effortlessly upon her shoulders - and Halloween night, 2001 was the beginning of it all.
That was when everything, everything changed. For her. For her opponent - Belfast’s Alanna Audley – and, most importantly of all, for women’s boxing in Ireland.
The nerves... even thinking back now, Taylor can almost feel her chest tighten. On the night itself it felt as though she couldn’t catch a breath until dad Pete issued some calming words of instruction.
“It seems like a lifetime ago now,” smiles Taylor, thinking back on her 15-year-old self.
“I’d been at the stadium a good few times before; we would’ve went to most competitions, even youth competitions or whatever. My dad would’ve even taken me out of school sometimes just to go and watch the fights at the stadium.
“I was quite aware it was a history-making fight because of the attention it was getting in the media beforehand and afterwards. I remember being quite nervous on the day because I realised how huge it actually was.
“I had been boxing since I was 10 years of age not getting any fights, training with all the guys for years and seeing them going away to competition after competition where I had no competition to go to because there was no female boxing at the time.
“So it was huge for me to get that first official fight, and to do it in the National Stadium as well was amazing. I’d been going there since I was a child, watching all these amazing fights, watching the seniors every year, and suddenly there I was...”
As ever with amateur boxing on these shores, however, there were bumps along the road to the promised land.
Despite voting to allow women’s boxing in 1997, it took another four years for that first sanctioned contest to take place, with strong lobbying from the likes of Pete Taylor and former kickboxer Mercedes Taaffe helping to edge the Irish Amateur Boxing Association in the right direction.
Taaffe, together with Fiona Hennigan and Sadie Duffy, set about recruiting female fighters for that historic show 18 years ago.
Sally McArdle, a 10-time world and European kickboxing champion, switched codes. Debbie Rogers signed up too, and they would face off against English opponents, Julia Fields and a little-known pocket rocket from Leeds called Nicola Adams.
McArdle had earlier watched in awe as a teenage Taylor was put through her paces by Irish coach Nicolas Cruz at the National Stadium, and pushed for her inclusion.
“She blew my mind,” McArdle told Sean McGoldrick in his book ‘Punching above their Weight: the Irish Olympic Boxing story.
“Mercedes told me who she was and how hard she trained and we instantly agreed that this incredible little machine had to be on the bill.
“She was going to be magic and without doubt the future of the sport.”
Taylor and Audley were only too delighted to oblige when the opportunity came along.
“My parents knew this was what I wanted to do,” says Taylor.
“They fought hard for me to get a chance to fight. They kept pushing to get female fighting in the country, and what a moment it was.”
And while the first bout on boxing bills is often easily forgotten, the enormity of this moment ensured their place in Irish boxing history was secured.
“It was weird, even in the couple of days before the fight,” recalls the Belfast girl, now Alanna Nihell.
“I remember we were doing a warm-up at the stadium and there was TV cameras there, photographers... it was crazy but I loved the buzz of it. The first time I stepped into the ring, that’s when it properly hit me, how big it all was, and how big the ring itself was!
“They wanted me to stand in the middle of the ring and skip, and I was looking around me thinking ‘this is massive’. Like, I’d only been boxing a couple of years and had a couple of exhibitions – one was against a boy from Sandy Row boxing club, Ernie Dougan, and the other was against a girl from Abbey boxing club at the Boom Boom Room in Bangor.”
Nihell brought the boom boom to the room that night to come up trumps – “she was from Bangor and they were all cheering for her; that really fired me up” – and had no prior knowledge of her next opponent when the Katie Taylor fight was floated.
“My nan Ina came down with me, and when we arrived at the stadium for the fight we actually met Katie and her daddy in the car park. That was the first time I’d seen her and I was like ‘alright? Whataboutye?’
“I don’t think Katie had met too many people from Belfast before and she looked a bit shocked… she was like ‘I’m okay… what about… you?’. We’ve laughed about that a few times since...”
“I didn’t know her before,” admits Taylor.
“I’d heard of her, but we actually became great friends after that fight; we travelled around the world together with the Irish team.
“She’s a great person, an absolutely fantastic girl.”
Nihell, who had just turned 16, was the aggressor from the off and piled the pressure onto her opponent throughout the three ninety-second rounds.
But it was the counter-punching class and short, sharp bursts that have become Taylor’s calling card which saw her arm raised by Sadie Duffy as she claimed a 23-12 victory.
“I roughed her up, I came to fight and I was happy enough with how I did, even though I lost,” says Nihell.
Taylor, though, wasn’t quite so pleased. Her father recalled how she had just returned three days earlier from Switzerland, having played soccer for Ireland at underage level, and hadn’t had the best preparation for fighting a bigger opponent.
Yet while the result may have felt like everything at the time, it has dipped in significance as the years have passed, on a night when the sport was the real winner.
“It was a huge night for me and a huge night for boxing.
“Unfortunately I didn’t get to box at the stadium a lot after that because there was quite a few walkovers when it came to the Irish seniors. There was a couple of internationals against America, I boxed on a Paddy Hyland show, but it was always so special to actually fight there.
“The atmosphere was amazing every single time, and to have the chance to fight in front of your home crowd is always so special.”
“I’m just proud to have shared a ring with her,” adds Nihell, who would go on to win a bronze medal for Northern Ireland at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
“As Katie says, we went on after that to become really good friends and would still chat every now and again over Twitter or whatever. We grew up together in boxing and she’s an amazing woman and an amazing boxer.
“I think it’s class that we made history together in Ireland and were able to play some part in helping women’s boxing here.”
The legacy they helped create is the embarrassment of riches Ireland currently enjoys among female ranks.
And it is that upsurge in interest which brings the greatest sense of satisfaction all these years on.
“The talent in Ireland at the minute is incredible,” says Taylor.
“That’s probably the best part about it all; to see so many female boxers in the country and the talent that’s coming up.
“The success they’re having now is phenomenal, and the most important thing is they’re seen now just as fighters – not ‘female fighters’. That’s fantastic.”
