Katie Taylor Happy to set the Record Straight
Following their all-action brawl on June 1, 2019, a large contingent of the boxing public felt that unified world lightweight champion Katie Taylor (16-0, 6 KO’s) received a gift decision over seasoned veteran Delfine Persoon (44-3, 18 KO’s). So when her prospective bout against Amanda “The Real Deal” Serrano vaporized, Taylor thought this was the perfect time to rematch Persoon.
For her part, the German-born Persoon desperately craved the fight but gave up hope that she’d ever get it. Said to say, when the opportunity to get her hands on the former Olympian presented itself, she jumped at the chance. Then, just like the first time, the women engaged in a very high paced, entertaining war. Unlike their premiere dust-up however, Katie Taylor was able to clearly demonstrate her dominance in the ring.
ONLY COULD BE WAR
During her preparation for the rematch, Taylor knew that she had to use her boxing ability more. Yet, she was also very cognizant of the fact that she would at some point be forced into a grueling slug-fest, as she revealed to Sky Sports Boxing.
“Yea, it was always going to be that kind of fight, it was never going to be an easy fight against someone like that. Delfine just comes and comes, she’s absolutely relentless for ten rounds. And it’s hard to keep someone like that at long distance for the whole fight. I knew at some stage I was going to have to dig deep and fight as well. But the fight went as planned.”
RESPECT DUE
When needled about her opinion about the outcome of their 2019 dust-up, Taylor was willing to admit that she thought it could have been a draw. She certainly felt that she earned the nod this time. Although, the undisputed lightweight champ felt that one of the scorecards was disrespectfully wide in her favor.
“Yeah, I thought the same. Maybe two, I think the 96-94 cards are probably the right scorecards but I’m just glad the decision went my way again! But yeah, I felt the same, it was definitely a bit wide and probably a bit disrespectful towards Delfine. She obviously put up fantastic fight again. We’ve had obviously two fights over the last year and a half and we’ve put in twenty grueling rounds together. It’s great to have that rivalry in women’s boxing!”
It’ll be fun to see what the next big rivalry in women’s boxing will be!
By: Bakari Simpson
