The London lights dazzled, the cameras flashed and the sound system boomed.
Katie Taylor was announced on stage with all the fanfare you'd expect from a world title fight. Tip the scales, make a stern face, raise your fist. She knows the drill. This is the 22nd time she has stepped into the professional ring. A winner every time. She’s used to it now.
Her opponent Karen Carabajal from Argentina looks on tensely from the side. She’s never seen anything remotely like this. It’s her first fight away from home and, in truth, she looks a little lost.
The fans cheer. The fighters stand to face each other and it’s job done. Katie Taylor puts her tracksuit back on. Now it’s time for boxing to take over. The hype is her least favourite part of the game.
"It's great to be back where it all started" - @OFlynnPaul caught up with undisputed lightweight champion @KatieTaylor ahead of her 14th title defence against Karen Carabajal in Wembley Arena on Saturday pic.twitter.com/K3wt9nCVx4
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) October 28, 2022
But for all the expectation, excitement and fizz in the air, there’s no escaping that the occasion is a little bit flat. It’s not where we are. Or where we’re going. It’s just it’s not where anyone here wants to be.
This weigh-in. This fight. This moment in Katie Taylor’s career was supposed to happen in Dublin. The re-match with Amanda Serrano. In Croke Park. In front of 80,000 fans. The homecoming the Bray boxer deserved. That it hasn’t happened, for a number of reasons, not least the Serrano camp running scared, is a disappointment that hangs over this contest.
Tomorrow night’s world title fight, for now, will serve merely as another appetiser for what Katie Taylor and her camp still hope someday will be a night for the ages in Dublin.
"It’s definitely not Croke Park," Taylor says as she surveys the backdrop of the Wembley Arena.
"That’s my absolute dream. That would be phenomenal to headline Croke Park, it’s the stuff of dreams. It’s crazy in my six years as a professional boxer that I still haven’t fought at home. So I hope that can happen sometime soon."
The words are uttered with a certain regret. But her camp remain optimistic the day will come.
"No-one deserves that night more than Katie Taylor," says her promoter Eddie Hearne.
"We will make it happen. For Katie Taylor. For Ireland… The Serrano re-match is the one. As a promoter I know if we do it, we’ll sell 80,000 on the first day. It’ll be a celebration for Irish sport."
He says they came near to agreeing a re-match in Croke Park but the Serrano camp didn’t want the fight.
"We came very close. It was very tight. This gives us a little more time. It’s a huge logistical event but a lot of the groundwork is done. I’m confident we can get it done quickly if we can agree a deal with Serrano."
But all that’s for another day. Katie, being Katie, is firmly focused on the challenge right in front of her.
"Every fight is a big fight", she says with trademark understatement.
"There’s no such thing as an easy fight at this stage in my career. I don’t find it difficult at all to motivate myself. I understand the challenge that’s ahead of me. She has everything to gain in this fight and nothing to lose. These fighters are always very, very dangerous."
In truth, we know little about Carabajal. The 32-year-old from Buenos Aires has won all 19 of her fights to date with two knockouts. But she’s never boxed outside Argentina.
While Croke Park, and Dublin, are out of bounds for now, the Wembley Arena is something of a home from home for Taylor. It’s the place where her professional career began. A low-key encounter against Karina Kopinska that began a journey nobody could have foreseen.
"It’s great to be back where it all started," she says with a smile. "We never would’ve imagined six years ago that we’d be in this position. Headlining the likes of Madison Square Garden. Bringing women’s boxing up to where it is right now. And I still honestly believe that the best is yet to come.
"I’m just looking forward to showcasing what I can do again on Saturday night. My training camp is going brilliantly. My mindset is still the same as it ever has been. I just love this sport. I’m still as passionate about this sport today as I ever was and that’s where the motivation comes from."
The fire still burns strong. But Croke Park remains very much on her mind.
