The Katie Taylor Rio 2016 Olympic campaign came to an abrupt end in the quarter finals.
The reigning Olympic champion from London 2012 took on Finland’s Mira Potkonen (35) in the women’s lightweight (57-60kg) quarterfinal.
Taylor (30) had received a bye ahead of today.
Ireland’s golden girl looked relaxed and focused ahead of the first bell and came out boxing well, utilising good footwork and fast in and out combinations, although she had to ship a couple of big punches in the first round – with two of the judges giving Taylor the first round.
The second round showed more aggression from Potkonen who landed scoring blows with Taylor struggling slightly with the reach disadvantage. She lost the second round on all three of the judges scorecards.
Katie Taylor upped the ante in the third round, landing some lovely straight one-two combinations and moving out of range after scoring. Her class came into play in this round and seemed to find her groove after a shaky second round.
The physically strong Potkonen was made miss at times in the fourth and final round, with Taylor been the aggressor for the majority of the round – landing the cleaner shots in my view.
The split decision winner was announced as Potkonen however in what was a very close fight, with the Finnish boxer’s more powerful punches seeming to catch the judges’ eyes more.
Coming into this year’s Olympics Katie had a tough run that saw her lose for the first time in five years. It had been speculated that she may opt to turn pro after this year’s Olympics.
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