If Katie Taylor had to pick the strangest city to defend her world title and look towards a record sixth consecutive championship, she may have chosen Kazakhstan's pristine capital Astana.
It is the place where Taylor also finds herself in an unusual position, where there is for once an external factor, a feeling she may have to prove herself again, her World Championships and clean sheet pockmarked by defeat last month to Yana Alekseevna.
But if anyone can, it is the world and Olympic champion, who will make the ice hockey venue on the outskirts of the city, the Barys Arena, as familiar as her square of canvas in Bray.
It doesn’t matter that she is in Astana, an odd city but one she will leave, she hopes, at the end of next week having seen nothing but her hotel, the venue and the airport. All five of her World Championship lightweight wins have been on strikingly unfamiliar terrain: New Delhi in India, Ningbo in China, Bridgetown in Barbados, Qinhuangdao in China, and Jeju, an island off South Korea.
It is not all strangeness in Astana. Taylor's mother Bridget will be around, as she always is for major championships, and on the other side of the draw is American Mikaela Mayer, who won her first bout. In her corner is another familiar face, former Irish head coach Billy Walsh.
In each strange city, Taylor has embedded herself, disengaged and taken no interest in anything but boxing. But as she goes into her first fight today against Sweden's Agnes Alexiusson, there is a puncture in the bubble of invincibility and just as Roger Federer began to be beaten in Wimbledon finals and lose his aura, the boxers in Astana also feel they see a chink in Taylor's armour.
Derail her Rio hopes
Her first challenge is to prove that her defeat to Alekseevna in Turkey does not make her vulnerable and derail her Rio hopes or disrupt the path towards what would be a record sixth gold medal at world level.
“Yeah, it’s Katie next,” said her Swedish opponent, after she won her first-round bout. “I just feel excited about that. Yes, I know she’s been beaten recently so now it’s possible. I fought her about a year ago in Ireland. She won. She was another level but it was a year ago now and I’ve grown a lot since then. I’m looking forward to it.”
There is a trade off to be measured. The Swede’s belief that Taylor is weaker must be set against the champion’s determination not to suffer defeat again in this year of all years.
Prior to leaving Ireland, Sofya Ochigava, the Russian Taylor beat in the London 2012 Olympic final, was brought to Dublin for a series of sparring sessions, her southpaw counter-punching style similar to that of Alekseevna and just what Taylor needed to face.
But she has not lost track of the other opponents such as French hope Estelle Mossely, the fourth seed, or the local favourite Kazakhstan's Rimma Volossenko, who is seeded eight. "I'm trying to look at the positives. I was very disappointed and at the time it was very hard to take," says Taylor of her defeat in Turkey.
“It’s only when you suffer a loss you start analysing a few things. Obviously over the last few years I was winning. When you are winning you don’t look at the things you are doing wrong too much. But there are more [fighters]. She [Alekseev- na] is not the only one.
“It’s a bad idea to just focus on one opponent. I’m very aware that she’s not the only one who can cause problems or threats. There are so many in the 60kg division that are top-quality boxers and we’re going in prepared for every single one of them.
Come back strong
“I had to pick myself up,” says Taylor. “But it was a good time for it to happen and I’ve had losses before in the past and I’ve always come back strong. I’ve always learned from those.”
Kelly Harrington made it through to round two of the tournament after a unanimous decision win over Lithuania’s Austeja Auciute.
Mulhuddart’s Dervla Duffy and Moira McElliott from St Michael’s Athy fell to their opponents in the first outing earlier in the day – Duffy to Italy’s Diletta Cipollone at bantamweight by unanimous decision and featherweight McElligott on a split decision to Turkey’s Sati Burcu. Christina Desmond lost her first-round fight in a unanimous decision to Morocco’s Khadija Mardi. The 20-year-old middleweight from Cork, who beat the Dutch European champion Nouchka Fontijn last month, gave away a significant height and reach advantage to Mardi.
It leaves the Irish team of eight with four boxers out of the competition after day two.
