Katie Taylor is Back on Top of the World

image credit:  https://www.independent.ie

May of this year was supposed to be Katie Taylor's homecoming.  Despite being a decorated world champion and former Olympic Gold Medal winner, she had never before had the opportunity to fight as a professional in her home country of Ireland.  When she was growing up, boxing was prohibited for girls and she had to dress up like a boy to train.  But in May, she fought in front of a sold out home crowd for the first time determined to continue her reign as one of the pound for pound greats in women's boxing in a fight against Chantelle Cameron.  Unfortunately, Cameron had other plans and came to win.  She handily defeated Taylor over 10 rounds using a strong jab and aggressive style that seemed to frustrate Taylor.  Maybe it was nerves or maybe Cameron was much better than she expected, regardless, Taylor was heartbroken by this first professional loss and wanted nothing more than to avenge her defeat.  She went back to the drawing board and trained hard for 6 months before the rematch on November 25th.

For the first time in her career, Taylor came in as the underdog.  She entered second at the 3Arena in Dublin and despite having an enormous sellout crowd of 9,000 people behind her, it was clear that Cameron had earned the respect as the current champion.  The atmosphere was absolutely electric and Taylor entered the ring with a determined and focused look on her face.  It was an incredible fight as was the first one.  Many have called it the fight of the year.  There was a lot of back and forth, but Taylor used her blazing handspeed and combinations to frustrate Cameron and won a close, extremely hard fought bout.

In the post fight interview, Taylor said, "“It was the longest six months in my life waiting for this rematch.  This is my real homecoming tonight. You saw the worst of me in May. You saw the best of me tonight. Let’s get the trilogy in Croke Park."  Croke Park is the soccer stadium in Ireland that can host 82,000 people.  Despite being written off as being at the end of her career, Taylor punctuated the fact that she is nowhere close to being done with a career-defining performance.  She was all class at the end of the fight giving props to Cameron for being a phenomenal fighter.  The heart and bravery of these two warriors can't be denied.  I have no doubt they will cement their legacies with a trilogy in the near future.  And if it does end up happening at Croke Park, I am certain they will sell it out.  A huge win for Katie Taylor, for women's boxing and for BOXING period.