Eric Donovan believes Katie Taylor will peak at next month’s Rio Olympics where she defends the lightweight title she won at London 2012.
Donovan has been drafted in as Taylor sparring partner to emulate the southpaws the Bray orthodox could meet at the 31st Olympiad.
The former Irish Elite champion and European Elite bronze medallist, a southpaw, switched codes this year and won on his professional debut in Dublin last month.
He’s been sparring Taylor for the last number of weeks at the Institute of Sport and the High Performance gym at the National Stadium in Dublin.
"Her sparring is up another few notches. She’s very sharp and very strong and she has the speed. I would be confident going into Rio with Katie," said Donovan, who will be part of the RTÉ boxing panel for Rio.
"Her attitude is spot on. We know that she’s always been very meticulous in her preparations anyway and she knows that the opposition is improving all the time.
"It's imperative that we have the best Katie Taylor going into Rio and judging by her preparations that’s what we will get. That was the whole objective (Taylor working with southpaws).
"Zaur Antia (Irish head coach) worked on the tactics and the plan and my job was to emulate the southpaws she could meet in Rio. That was the purpose of me being chosen as a sparring partner for her.
"Four years ago going into the London Olympics, I was her sparring partner in preparation for the Russian southpaw Sofya Ochigava who she beat in the final. She came up with the goods then and hopefully she can replicate that in Rio," added Donovan.
Meanwhile, Ireland’s male boxing Olympians - Paddy Barnes, Brendan Irvine, Michael Conlan, David Oliver Joyce, Steven Donnelly, Michael O’Reilly and Joe Ward finish their final training camp in Rio today before decamping to the Olympic village on Friday.
The squad have been training with Brazil and the USA, with ex Irish head coach Billy Walsh in the American corner, at a naval base in the host city for the 2016 Games.
