You only had to watch her post-fight interview to see that, through the tears, the stops and the deep breaths, this was the most disappointing moment of Katie Taylor’s career.
It was raw, it was numb, it was the quarter-final of the women’s lightweight division at the Rio Olympics and, having been beaten by Finish boxer Mira Potkonen, through the hurt of it all, Katie Taylor could barely bring herself to speak.
The Bray boxer is not used to losing, she’s so good that she’s never had to be but even as her dream of winning back-to-back Olympic Gold medals went with the wind, even in this moment of unfamiliar and crushing adversity, in not seeking excuses, Katie Taylor showed each of the traits that earn her such widespread admiration.
As we now know, given the substantiated claims of corruption surrounding the scoring of boxing matches at the games, the excuses were there if she wanted them but instead she didn’t want to know. It’s now five years on though and, with her fight having been labelled as ‘suspicious’ in Richard McLaren’s 149 page report on the games’ crookedness, Taylor has an excuse whether she wants it or not.
The fight should be investigated further according to McLaren’s report, which uncovered evidence of ‘corruption, bribery and the manipulation of sporting results’ at the games.
Watch Taylor’s post-fight interview with Joe Stack below.
“Sometimes the plans that you have in your heart aren’t the same as God’s plans,” she said despondently.
“I thought she won the second round but I thought the other three rounds went my way,” she added genuinely.
“But again, it was very close and it’s hard to call when you’re in there. Every fight is subjective, it’s hard to call them a lot of the time.”
Team Ireland head coach Zaur Antia was more definite at the time, claiming that his fighter couldn’t have done much more.
“She won,” he said. “She had good skills, sidesteps, clean punches, what else she can do now? Katie hit more, two times more, than she got hit.”
