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Katie Taylor answers questions from RTÉ.ie users
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By Tadhg Peavoy
I was scheduled to meet a world champ. Four-time European Amateur Women’s Boxing and two-time World Amateur Women’s Boxing champion Katie Taylor, that is.
And an Ireland women’s international soccer player to boot.
With women’s boxing now included as an Olympic sport and set to make its debut at the London 2012 Games, Katie Taylor is being touted for Ireland’s first boxing gold medal since Michael Carruth won in Barcelona in 1992.
Taylor has devoured all opponents that have come her way in the last four years. But within a few minutes of meeting her, I realise she is quite the opposite to her in-ring persona: she is beautiful, sensitive, polite and extremely gentle.
As we settle down for our interview, I already pick up that this is a woman at ease with herself and her job. With that in mind I ask Katie would she ever change being a boxer and does she feel that she has missed out on anything by dedicating almost every day for the last ten years to the sport.
‘No, this is what I want to do with my life and something that I love doing every single day of my life. I’m so lucky and priviliged to be living this lifestyle.
'When I have a few weeks off I catch up with my friends, but after a week or so, I just can’t wait to get back in to the boxing club and start training. I’m living the dream I suppose; this is what I’ve always wanted to do,’ she says.
Katie began boxing eight years ago at the age of 15. However, at six or seven years of age, she was inspired by seeing her father in the ring.
‘Before I went up to the club, he [her father, Pete] used to bring me training. Seeing him training brought me a lot closer to the sport as well I suppose,’ she says.
However, Taylor insists that her father never encouraged her to lace up her gloves and that it was all her own decision.
'I don’t think he ever planned for me to become a boxer, it just happened that way. I just enjoyed being at the club and he kept on bringing me back. I don’t think he thought anything was going to come of it as there were so few female boxers at the time.’
As most kids of a young age do, Taylor tried her hand at all sports before committing to boxing and soccer. ‘Back then I was into everything really: athletics and hurling and Gaelic. Boxing was just another one to keep me going as a child,’ she states.
All sports aficionados often wonder what it is like to be crowned best in the world, or Europe, and I ask Taylor which of her world and European title victories was the most satisfying.
‘I think they were all special, but the fourth [European title] was a little overshadowed by Darren [Sutherland’s] death; it was quite hard to celebrate it. The second [European] was great to beat the reigning world champion [Tatiana Chalaya of Russia] in Poland in the final,’ she says.
And did she expect to win that first European title? ‘Everytime I go into competion, I always think I can win, so I did expect to win all those competitions,’ she adds, without a hint of bravado and purely matter-of-fact.
Taylor goes to Barbados next year, in an attempt to win a third world title on the trot and will approach that campaign and her tilt for gold at London 2012 in the same manner as always.
‘I just take each competition as it comes and the same as usual,’ she continues. Pete Taylor, who sits beside her throughout the interview, is quick to comment: ‘I think preparation-wise we have it down to a tee now.’
The Taylors have a regimented fight-day plan, which Katie explains: ‘We do the weigh-in, then go for a walk, then have breakfast, then I listen to worship songs on my iPod, because I’m a Christian. I always read the same Bible verses too. We do the same warm-up a lot of the time as well. But, I have no superstitions before a fight.’
Taylor holds a rather unique calling card of competing internationally in both soccer and boxing. She tells me that boxing helps her compete on the pitch.
‘The training is totally different. The boxing helps in the physical end of things with the football, but if I was just training on the pitch for [fitness] in the ring, I wouldn’t be able for it,’ she says.
Therefore it makes sense for Taylor to put soccer on the backburner in the build-up to the London Olympics, in case of injury. ‘I have two World Cup qualifiers coming up against Russia and Kazakhstan and after that I think I’ll just have to be sensible and stop. I just can’t really risk it anymore with injuries,’ she adds.
However, she may come back to the soccer after 2012, if ‘she can remember how to kick a ball,’ she quips.
Pressure is often the undoing of many top stars, but Taylor doesn’t feel overwhelmed by public interest in her hope of landing Olympic gold in three years' time.
‘I don’t feel much pressure at all. I have great family support and they take a lot of pressure off me. They help to contol media and public interest,’ she states.
Before I left the office to meet Taylor, I asked some of the women in the office what they would like to know about Ireland’s number one female sports star. They wondered what Taylor’s mother thought, and so I asked her.
‘She has a lot of confidence and faith in my own ability. She’s always been really supportive and always thought I was going to do great things in the sport as well, so, that kind of rubs off on me. I love her being away in the competition with me as well.'
Boxing is one of the most male-dominated sports in the world, but Taylor doesn’t find this a put-off: ‘I’ve been training with lads all my life; there are always going to be people against women’s boxing and women being punched [in the ring]. Things like that don’t bother me at all. I keep my head down and keep focusing and keep training,’ she answers.
With the sport opened up to the world’s gaze that the Olympics delivers, Katie feels that women’s boxing will grow in stature worldwide.
‘There are going to be female boxers I’ve never even heard of coming into the international scene. It’s going to make it so competitive, but it’s going to show the world what women’s boxing is all about,’ she enthusiastically tells me.
Taylor has been at times frustrated by the lack of attention for the sport in the past. She continues: ‘It is very frustrating at times, because if I was a man, my fights would be televised more. That’s just the way it is.’
Katie conceded no points whatsover in all three bouts of the last defence of her European title. This astounding fact she puts mostly down to good form: ‘My defence was very good in that competition, but I think the girls that I boxed in that competition were made for me. I think I was just in top form. The girls that usually give me really close fights were on the opposite side of the draw and they all seemed to get beaten. I definitely don’t think that will ever happen again.’
Katie, it seems, is being too modest in her appraisal of the situation. As her father points out: ‘That was the third European final you’ve never conceded a point. In Denmark [in 2007] you ony conceded four points in a fight and that was all you conceded [in] the whole tournament - in four fights. Sometimes Katie doesn’t realise that she’s improving all the time. She’s improving in leaps. In the last [European] competition her attack was her defence and the girls didn’t have a chance to get their punches off.’
Taylor’s left hook is her most talked-about tool of attack and she’s aware of it. ‘I think left hook is probably my strongest punch definitely. But I think the last year I’ve developed my right hand a lot and I think it’s one of my main scoring punches now. My left hook was strong from a young age, 11 or 12 [-years-old], in the last year my right hand has only become such a scoring punch.’
Pete Taylor adds: ‘Every time going into a fight we always tell Katie, “be busy with you' left hand”; she can keep people off with her left hand. If you’re busy with your left hand, it’s very hard for opponents to get time and it’s like a key that opens the door for you.’
Taylor mentioned the late Darren Sutherland earlier and I ask her what her memories of the Olympic bronze medallist are. ‘I was training with Darren before the Olympics and he was always so supportive and the first to congratulate me and give me a hug.
'When I won my first world title he was there at the airport to greet me home. I remember when I was boxing in Chicago, he said after the fight “I learned so much from watching you”. He was always so supportive,’ she says.
Pete Taylor adds: ‘We have a great photo at home of Katie coming back from the first worlds and he is walking out of the airport with Katie on his shoulders. We have had it up in the house even before this tragedy. It’s a lonely sport, boxing, and he put so much pressure on himself. It’s like Katie going out to the Ukraine to win her last European title. The more you win, the more pressure is on you. Even coming up to these Olympics, people are saying “she’ll just have to turn up”. You don’t, you have to qualify - only 12 boxers qualify.’
Somehow, however, one senses Katie will most definitely turn up, and deal with that pressure.
With the atmosphere relaxed, I opened up the floor to questions from RTÉ.ie readers, which we had compiled during the week. To read your questions and Katie’s answers, click here.
Tadhg Peavoy was in conversation with Katie and Pete Taylor on 8 October, 2009.
