The greatest female amateur boxer of all time, Ireland’s Katie Taylor becomes champion of the world for the first time as a professional.
Irish eyes around the world were indeed smiling tonight as their collective favorite fighting queen realised her destiny as a professional – by becoming world champion.
The title was only available for Taylor to win tonight as previous champion and opponent Anahi Esther Sanchez from Argentina missed weight the day before.
The former amateur world and Olympic champion was at her explosive best, too.
31 year old Katie Taylor while having a slight reach and height disadvantage over Sanchez more than made up for it tonight, as she won the world title in less than a year since turning pro with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Sport.
Taylor won the first round with ease but landed a perfectly placed body shot in the 2nd round to put the former champion down:
https://twitter.com/Punchoutboxing5/status/924357060816527367
She followed up with a massive flurry of combinations that backed Sanchez up on the ropes. The brave Argentinian female boxer managed to somehow survive the end of the round.
Taylor landed another massive right hand in the 3rd round. Sanchez somehow took the shot and remained on her feet.
Sanchez recovered in round 5 and began to put some pressure on Taylor, who was sporting a mark on her face by this point of the fight.
Round 6 proved to be a heavy one in the favor of Taylor. Sanchez was having a torrid time dealing with her hand speed, work rate and relentless combinations.
Sanchez proved to be a very tough customer hwoever and kept coming forward in round 7, while shipping some painful looking right hands while on the ropes.
Round 8 continued in a similar fashion. Sanchez’ lack of head movement ensured a marked up face from the one-two combinations inflicted by Taylor by the end of the round.
Sanchez continued to march forward in round 9 in what was a round that the pace started to slow down from both fighters, but still a Taylor round based on punches landed.
Taylor closed out the 10th and final round with ease to win her first world title in the pro ranks by unanimous decision.
The win tonight’s improved Katie Taylor’s record as a professional to 7-0-4KO and saw her claim the WBA world female lightweight title.
No doubt celebrations in her hometown of Bray, Co.Wicklow in Ireland will go on long into the night, as they will with many tens of millions of Irish scattered around the globe.