Katie Taylor has a problem. That might see like an odd statement to make about someone who has just won their professional fight debut, but there has never been any doubt about her in ring skills.
Taylor’s systematic demolition of her opponent on Saturday was impressive. A mixture of body shots and jabs was technically superb. The sky commentary team in the build up to the fight compared Taylor to Ronda Rousey.
Katie Taylor is no Ronda Rousey. Rousey was a force of personality who won fights so quick they could fit into a vine. Katie Taylor is a very soft spoken individual who is unlikely to be ever comfortable with drawing excitement and interest in one of her fights using her verbal skills. Her promoter Eddie Hearn had to step in before the fight and purchase Katie’s kit as Taylor’s original choice was one of black shorts before the Hearn added gold to make it stand out on TV.
In the aftermath of the fight Hearn seemed himself well aware of Taylor’s hesitance around a microphone and eluded to fact that Katie would have to fight dynamically in the ring.
“The pressure for Katie was not just getting the win. The pressure was on the style of fighting. She could have gone in there and boxed really nicely for six round behind the jab, everyone would have clapped and then decided; I’m not watching that again.
Ronda finished opponents with the ferocity of Mike Tyson early in his career. That’s what helped to make Rousey a star and that’s something we are unsure Taylor has in her locker.
Even though it’s early into her professional career Katie would serve well to pay attention to a situation in UFC and involving a man who tweeted her congratulations ,Conor McGregor.
Khabib Nurmagomedov is an undefated lightweight and should be in line for a his first title shot against McGregor next. Nurmagomedov is also a classic example of what happens to a fighter who is very dangerous in the ring and struggles to connect with the audience out of it. Khabib is simply not worth the risk to McGregor to fight as he is a tough opponent for the “notorious” one and more importantly an equally as tough sell at the box office.
There in lies the Katie Taylor problem. She is a supremely skilled boxer, a serious threat to anyone she will step in the ring with but, unless she starts to show she can embrace the business side of boxing she maybe never be able to reach the heights of the professional game. In the end the risk of fighting her might not be worth the financial reward.
