KATIE TAYLOR’S POTENTIAL appearance on the undercard of Gennady Golovkin’s world title defence at New York’s Madison Square Garden has been called off.
The Bray boxer was in line to fight at the iconic sporting venue on St Patrick’s weekend but negotiations with promotions company Top Rank have fallen through.
Taylor’s promoter Eddie Hearn had previously revealed the five-time world champion was set to step into the ring on 18 March but has now confirmed it won’t go ahead.
“What happened was, we were talking to Golovkin about Katie Taylor going on the card – which everyone wanted to do, obviously,” he told IFL TV.
“And then Top Rank, Todd duBoef mainly, threw his absolute toys out of the pram because they’ve got the [Michael] Conlan show the night before.
“Golovkin went on March 18th, which they weren’t very happy about but they let it go. Then they heard Katie Taylor was on and they threw their toys out and went ‘we’ve got an Irish show, Katie Taylor’s obviously massive and she’s going on the night before?’
“It was a big, well I won’t say argument, but it was drama.”
(Watch Hearn on Taylor from 27 minutes onwards)
The prospect of Taylor fighting on the undercard was first mooted ahead of her professional debut in November. It had promised to be a huge weekend for Irish boxing with Michael Conlan and Paddy Barnes already confirmed to fight at Madison Square Garden on St Patrick’s Day itself.
However, Hearn is now exploring other options for his fighter and raised the possibility of Taylor fighting on the Anthony Joshua-Wladimir Klitschko card at Wembley Stadium on 29 April.
Taylor has already fought on the same card as Joshua with her second professional outing coming against Viviane Obenauf in Manchester last December. Her record in the pro game stands at 2-0.
Hearn also hinted that the Jermel Charlo v Charles Hatley in Washington on 11 March is another option for Taylor.
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
