Those fighting Irish, huh?
They get everywhere. We have Conor McGregor historically holding two belts in the UFC, WBA super featherweight champion Carl Frampton preparing for his rematch with Leo Santa Cruz at the end of the month, Jason Quigley making waves in California and Michael Conlan preparing for his professional bow.
Always punching above our collective weight in the fight games, the Irish are known and respected around the world.
Then there is Katie Taylor. The freshly-minted professional with a record of 2-0 was in New York on Saturday night for the James DeGale-Badou Jack fight, which featured on the card a high profile women’s bout between Amanda Serrano and Yazmin Rivas.
While DeGale and Jack both kept their belts after their super middleweight unification fight was called a majority draw, Rivas retained her WBO junior featherweight title with a unanimous decision.
There was also a win on the card for Cork’s Noely Murphy – the super welterweight claiming a unanimous decision against Maxito Sainvil to take his record to 8-0.
Plenty for Taylor to enjoy then as the lightweight waits for her third professional opponent to be confirmed.
One man who could tell the Bray woman plenty about selecting opponents is Floyd Mayweather Jr. Taylor bumped into Pretty Boy at the Barclays Centre, posting a picture to her Instagram page with the caption, “Chilling with Floyd in Brooklyn!”
Mayweather retired with a professional record of 49-0 but is, of course, currently contemplating a return to the ring against Taylor’s compatriot McGregor.
As UFC president Dana White got involved with a substantial offer to both Mayweather and McGregor, the possibility of the fight taking place has increased considerably.
We would love to know what advice Taylor gave to Mayweather, if any. We know McGregor has huge respect for the London 2012 gold medallist, describing her as one of Ireland’s “pound-for-pound greatest athletes”.
Pretty Boy may not hold the Wicklow woman in quite the same regard, but he would surely be keen to get her take on McGregor. Another globally recognisable member of the fighting Irish.
