The Da used to tell us about the time he set his alarm for three in the morning, went downstairs, buttered some cream crackers, poured a glass of milk and brought them back up to bed to listen to the radio commentary on the 1962 fight in Chicago between Sonny Liston and Floyd Patterson. Two minutes, six seconds later, Patterson was knocked out, not a cracker yet consumed nor a sip of milk drunk. The Ma never stopped laughing.
Sixty years on, the alarm goes off at three in the morning, this time to watch a woman from Bray fighting in front of 20,000 people in Madison Square Garden. Not sure which would have baffled the Da or Ma more, the ladies slugging it out or that the DAZN app allowed you to watch it all live on your phone.
No crackers or milk this time, though – the tummy wouldn't have been able after all those predictions that Amanda Serrano would prove too mighty for Katie Taylor, and the one thing this auld heart couldn't handle is seeing Katie Taylor downed.
David Diamante, the ring announcer, told us it was “FIGHT TIIIIIIIME”, but he lied; first he had to list out everything Katie had won through her amateur and pro careers, so it was a long wait.
“God bless you both,” said the referee to the pair, and heaven knows, they needed a higher power’s benediction in light of the contest that was to come.
Flipped the see-saw
Some on this shore weren’t best pleased with the DAZN team’s take on the fight, reckoning commentator Todd Grisham and his sidekicks Chris Mannix and Jessica McCaskill, one of Katie’s many victims, only had eyes for Amanda, and they’d have been largely right. Still, it just flipped the see-saw after how Sky used to cover Katie’s fights, when if she even scratched her ear they were comparing it to the Thrilla in Manila. So, no matter.
What happened after bordered on the miraculous, how someone can rally like that after being in such physical despair will remain an unsolvable mystery
Disclosure. Much of the bout was “watched” a little like Patterson v Liston 60 years ago: sound only. Phone face down. Not least during that fifth round when, yes, the tears welled, Katie was done, pummelled and bloodied, there wasn’t a chance in hell she’d come back from this.
“She’s holding on for dear life,” Jessica howled. “We’ve never seen Katie in trouble like this before,” Todd shrieked. “Ali and Frazier would be proud of this!”
And then. Look, what happened after bordered on the miraculous, how someone can rally like that after being in such physical despair is something that will remain an unsolvable mystery for those of us whose greatest physical challenge in life has been opening a beetroot jar.
That last round was both – honesty alert – distressing and exhilarating to watch, two extraordinary women summoning up inconceivable levels of courage, while inflicting ferocious brutality on each other. It’s hard to like boxing, but it’s easy to be in awe of the people who make it their living.
Sweetest two words
Decision time. “And STILL . . .” will always be the sweetest two words we’ve ever heard in Irish sport. Still the undisputed champion of the world.
No sooner had the decision been announced when Eddie Hearn and Jake Paul were in front of the mics calling for a rematch, the dollar signs dripping from their eyes, Eddie’s gaze firmly fixed on Croke Park.
Former world champion Tony Bellew, on duty with DAZN, had, though, a different take on it all. It was, he said, “one of the best fights I’ve ever seen”, saluting Katie’s “brilliant tactical awareness” and “the phenomenal way she manages her way through fights”.
But?
“I hope that’s the last time I see Katie in the ring, otherwise I think she’s going to end up with a knockout defeat. Do not overstay your welcome in the most brutal, ruthless sport that there is. She’s achieved the dream, she just hasn’t done it in her dream location, that’s all. Going to Croke Park in Ireland and filling that amazing stadium would be a dream come true – but do me a favour, don’t do it against Amanda Serrano.”
It was good to hear at least one voice thinking of her welfare, amidst the cacophony of “CROKE PARK HERE WE COME!” goons. Hopefully, it’s Katie, and only Katie, who will decide. She owes us nothing.
