There was always a distinct possibility that the day would come, but there were those who dreaded Katie Taylor's entrance in to the world of professional boxing much like they might have done, say, a Bob Dylan appearance on X Factor. Because both would have had roughly the same impact: the sense that your world had fallen asunder and there was no hope of it ever being reassembled.
That, though, was when we thought amateur boxing was incorruptibly pure while the pro game was unscrupulously shady, but then Rio came and those who hadn’t been paying attention before concluded that there’s not a cigarette paper between them.
So, if whichever working world you choose to toil in can, on occasion, be corruptibly unscrupulous, you might as well be paid for your labour if you’re going to thump and be thumped for a living. Which is why you could only wish Katie the bestest on her new journey, hope she makes a barrel of loot, and gets out of it pronto.
Still, there was a slight sense of dread before her debut on Saturday night, a bit of anxiety over the possibility of her entering the professional arena for the first time to the strains of, say, Sinead O'Connor crooning The Foggy Dew. And Katie thumping her bosom like a deranged silverback upon arrival in the ring, the tricolour-bedecked crowd going all foamy-mouthed in adoration.
But then you stir yourself from your nightmare – like anything that crappy could possibly be real – and it was all much more dignified; Katie's entrance tune the serene Thunderstruck by Australian folk combo AC/DC, the crowd, while enthusiastic, not quite baying for blood.
Farcical
They did, though, boo Karina Kopinska, which was rough, not least because the Pole was about to endure her fourth successive defeat in just three months. There were those who argued that this made the fight a bit farcical, that even Legia Warsaw, fresh from that 8-4 Champions League setback, could defend better than Kopinska, but all it proved is that there might actually be gender equality in boxing – how often have we seen hyped-to-the-gills boy pugilists paired with lads who looked as fit as you will on St Stephen’s morning? Exactly. So hush.
Eased in, then, Kopinska done and dusted a minute-ish into the third round. The only oddity about the spectacle was the sight of our Katie without a headguard. You just hope she gets used to it sooner than we will.
And then she had to give yet another interview, having already done more in the past week than she’s done in her entire lifetime. You get the sense she if finding this aspect of her pro life more painful than anything she’ll ever suffer in the ring.
Build-up
This was Fight Night on Sky. It began with a clip of David Haye and Tony Bellew being very rude to each other at the start of what will be an interminable build-up to their March fight – “I’m going to absolutely destroy you!”; “Ha, ha, no you won’t!”; “Yes I will, SpongeBob SquarePants”; “Ha, ha, I will eat you alive!”; etc – and then there was Katie ringside after her triumph.
“This is my pro debut, we don’t want to get too carried away, the tests are going to get tougher from here.”
And you had to turn up the volume to hear her speak, everything else on the programme ear-splittingly LOUD.
Sky had, possibly, been hoping for: ‘This is only the beginning, bitches!’
They can take the girl out of amateur boxing, but. . .
Promoter Eddie Hearn has a lot of work to do, but if he succeeds in getting Katie to thump her bosom like a deranged silverback and declare, say, “there are two things I really like to do and that’s whoop ass and look good”, it’ll be up there with transforming water in to wine.
