THE NEW WBA World lightweight champion will defend her belt for the first time in England on 15 December as confirmed yesterday, but a homecoming bout in Dublin is tentatively looming around the corner, so say both Katie Taylor’s promoter and manager.
The last time the 2012 Olympic gold medalist boxed on a professional card in Dublin, Bernard Dunne would later that March 2009 night become world champion in his own right, but a spring date in the capital is being earmarked for a potential unification bout against one of Taylor’s fellow lightweight queens.
Speaking at a press conference in Dublin, promoter Eddie Hearn confirmed it a priority that Taylor box in front of Irish fans early next year, with a compatriot of Saturday’s victim potentially in line to both defend her own crown and bid to usurp Taylor as the 135-pound division’s game of thrones kicks into gear thanks to the Bray woman’s ascent to champion status.
“The big homecoming, we’ll look for March or April,” said Hearn. “And that’s the plan: to unify the division in the spring next year in Ireland.
Obviously, she’s huge here in Ireland, and although the plan is to grow the Katie Taylor brand all around the world, ultimately, we need to return here – we need that big fight.
“Obviously, [Victoria] Bustos is the IBF champion, that’s a potential unification here in April, March.”
Taylor’s manager Brian Peters confirmed that the 3Arena – the same but revamped venue as played host to Taylor’s last appearance on a major card on these shores – would be the leading contender to host a Taylor-headlined world title bill, but suggested the RDS as a possible alternative.
Peters reiterated the importance of a homecoming in its ability to afford Irish fans the opportunity to watch her scrap in person without necessarily shelling out a small fortune for travel and accommodation.
“Probably the 3Arena or the RDS would be the preferred choices,” he said. “She would be the headline. Even you see with Sky already, Sky headlining with Katie in little over 12 months – that is ground-breaking stuff. If someone had said that 16 months or two years ago, you would have thought they were nuts. Katie just loves breaking boundaries and making history, which is great.
[She's fought in] amazing venues: Wembley – one of the greatest heavyweight fights in recent history. Even the other night, Cardiff, with the closed roof – the atmosphere was very unique, very unusual. It was a great fight. But certainly the homecoming, March or April, all going well – that’ll be the big one. That’ll be very, very special.
“The support Katie’s got has been fantastic”, Peters continued, “and it’s hard sometimes for people on a lot of Eddie’s shows. They sell out: it’s hard to get tickets, hard to get hotels, and it’s costly, too.
“An opportunity for a lot of people to be able to see Katie at home, really, would be super.”
The aforementioned Bustos of Argentina [18-4, 0KOs] will be considered as a foe, but with whispers that she’s considering a move up to light-welterweight, her IBF title may wind up vacant before the spring.
Several other options will be explored, too, with Peters confirming that Belgium’s WBC champion Delfine Persoon [38-1, 16KOs] would be in the picture should she defend the green strap versus Myriam Dellal on 11 November.
“Possibly, or one of the other champions. It’s whoever we can nail down, and unfortunately some people are going to get a little bit carried away and price themselves out of it, so one of the champions. A unification would be the plan and hopefully we’ll make that happen in March or April in Dublin.
A huge problem – and I suppose I’m not big into excuses – but I think we went through nearly 20 opponents. Now we have the opportunity: they can get paid a lot more money, they can get a lot more notice. This [December fight] is a little bit short, but they can get more notice, get paid a lot more, they get to fight for the title and they get on big shows, which I think is important – any of the women out there that are professional, unless they’re just codding themselves this is where they want to be.
As for why Taylor will fight in London in December as opposed to America, which was originally slated before a cut suffered during her title win over Anahi Sanchez looked certain to rule her out until the new year, Peters explained that time constraints dictated that the English capital be more convenient.
He also claimed Taylor will likely fight again early in 2018 – this time Stateside – before returning home for her ninth professional bout.
“I suppose it’s less than seven weeks, so it’s probably just the turnaround. We have another couple of things cooking in America too, which could probably change. It’s kind of hard enough to say between all of the TV networks, but America will certainly feature.
She’ll probably be out in America early enough in the new year and then probably April in Dublin. She wants to stay active and stay busy and I think it’s the way to go.
The WBA champion herself is naturally excited by the prospect of topping a major event in Dublin whenever that time does come.
“Yeah, can’t wait,” Taylor said.
It was always in the pipeline to fight at home at some stage. It’s been absolutely fantastic fighting in the UK for the last few months, and the support I’ve got over there has been incredible, but I guess it’s only a taster for what it’s going to be like next year in Dublin.
“Saturday was just a springboard to these huge championship fights – unification fights – in Ireland, but in England and America as well,” Eddie Hearn told Tuesday’s press conference.
Everybody left Saturday going: ‘Katie Taylor, that was my favourite bit of the night.’ When you talk about women’s boxing and the barriers… For people to say that… And it wasn’t just some people, everybody was saying it.
“I think people talk about men’s boxing, women’s boxing, but it gets a bit boring, now, really, because it was just boxing. I’ve said that from the start. She is incredibly entertaining to watch – I think one of the most impressive, one of the most exciting boxers in world boxing – forget about female boxing, men’s boxing.”
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