Katie Taylor: Ireland’s Knock-Out

Katie Taylor is the pride of ireland. The top-ranked lightweight boxer won her quarterfinal Olympic bout Monday.

Taylor is Ireland’s top gold medal hope and was the country’s flag bearer at the opening ceremonies. Former champion boxer Barry McGuigan represented Ireland in the 1980 Olympics.

He speaks with anchor Lisa Mullins about Katie Taylor.

Read the Transcript
The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Lisa Mullins: I’m Lisa Mullins, and this is The World. Saudi Arabia is celebrating its first medal of the Olympic Games. The Saudi team won a bronze in show jumping, we’re talking horses here. It was a sweet victory; especially considering one of the team horses failed a drug test earlier this year. Great Britain suffered a shock in boxing. Team GB’s middleweight favorite, Savannah Marshall, was upset by Kazakhstan’s Marina Volnova. It was a good day for the Irish, though. Their top ranked lightweight boxer Katie Taylor won her quarterfinal bout at the games. Taylor is Ireland’s top hope for a gold medal, their first since 1996. She was also the country’s flag bearer at the opening ceremonies. Barry McGuigan is a former Olympic boxer, her represented Ireland in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, he is also the former world featherweight boxing champion, he is now in Southeast Kent. Barry McGuigan, I know you watched today’s bout with Katie Taylor, how’s your girl looking?

Barry McGuigan: Wow, she looks amazing. This girl is pretty special, Lisa. She’s four times world champion, five times European champion, has captained the Irish football team, played Gaelic football. She’s a multi-sports woman, a beautiful girl, good looking, and what an athlete. She boxed and beat former world bronze medalist Natasha Jonas from Great Britain today, and you’d think the place had been taken over by the whole of Ireland, it was just incredible.

Mullins: The woman, as you mentioned, from Great Britain who Katie faced today is Natasha Jonas who actually had some really nice things to say about her. She said, “I came here the fittest, the leanest, the healthiest smartest boxer could be, and she (meaning Katie Taylor) is still the best.” What is it that makes her so good?

McGuigan: I think the fact that her dad was a pretty good light heavyweight. She looked at her dad shadowboxing when she was a kid. She started boxing at twelve, but she was also playing other sports. She has great hand-eye coordination, she has great foot movement. She moves into position and punches, and then she double faints with her feet. I watched her sparring some of the men in the Irish elite team and she’s equal to them, she’s brilliant. And what the dad has done is he’s obviously impounded the technique, technique, technique over the years and did loads of drills with her, but her style and her technique is amazing.

Mullins: I think her dad was in the boxing ring with her today, wasn’t he? In the corner?

McGuigan: He’s in the corner with the assistant national coach, a guy called Zaur Antia.

Mullins: Is it those attributes of her and her story and her family that you think have brought Ireland around her, or is it more the fact that she’s the poster girl for boxing as an women’s Olympic sport now and she has the best chance at the gold?

McGuigan: She is the poster girl because she’s four times world champion and five times European champion. She’s also a very nice person, she’s very humble, doesn’t get emotional, and even when she’s fighting – I mean, the pressure that was on her shoulders for today’s event must have been extraordinary. She was able to keep a cool head, box magnificently, keep her discipline the whole way through, she’s an outstanding talent. She might even be in with a chance of winning the Val Baker award for the best boxer of the tournament. Obviously they take into consideration what she’s done in the past, but she’s looked equal to any of the men here stylistically. She can punch perfect the whole way through.

Mullins: Barry, you’ve been boxing a long time, as we said you competed in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. Did you ever think you’d see the day when a woman would be in the boxing ring at the Olympics?

McGuigan: I didn’t. I know that it’s not really well known, but it was tried way back in 1904, it was tried a trial event but didn’t really happen, it wasn’t competitive enough. This is the first time it’s been introduced, and if it’s a success which I know it will be, it’s already been a resounding success so far, they will take in all the other weight divisions for 2016 in Rio. I would never have been a boxing fan, I remember Lisa going to the Golden Gloves with the late great Floyd Patterson in 1995, and I was really alarmed at how good the girls were, but I sort of went off it again. I saw a couple of bouts where the girls were too good for their opponents and it was too one-sided. Then Katie Taylor, watching her train and box has completely converted me. Anybody who has any reservations about whether the girls are good enough, they just have to plop eyes on Katie Taylor. She’s an exceptional talent, and they will be converted. She’s brilliant, and I’m pretty sure she’ll win the gold medal.

Mullins: Are you going to be watching on Wednesday for the next bout?

McGuigan: Most definitely, I’ll be there.

Mullins: Alright, thank you. Barry McGuigan is the former Olympic boxer, former featherweight boxing champion, and a boxing commentator. So nice to talk to you, congratulations by the way.

Mullins: Thanks Lisa. With a name like Mullins, I know where you’re from too.

Mullins: [laughs] You’ve got my number. Thanks a lot Barry, good luck.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.