Katie Taylor gets Dublin homecoming but a shadow lingers over Irish boxing | Katie Taylor

For seven years elite boxing has been absent from Ireland after a gangland murder at a Dublin weigh-in. On Saturday it returns but uncertainty surrounds Taylor’s long-awaited first pro fight on home soil

The lonely passion of Katie Taylor will feel more intense than ever on Saturday night in Dublin. As the most significant female boxer in the world, and the most cherished sporting personality in Ireland, Taylor will fight professionally in her home country for the first time. At 36, as an Olympic champion with a flawless 22-0 pro record, Taylor remains remarkably humble and devoted to boxing. But uncertainty surrounds her homecoming.

Taylor, the undisputed world lightweight champion, has moved up a division to challenge Chantelle Cameron who defends all her belts as the imposing super-lightweight world champion at the 3Arena – less than three miles from the scene of a gangland murder which prevented major boxing promotions in Ireland for the past seven years.

On 5 February 2016 at the Regency Hotel a boxing weigh-in was invaded by four gunmen who killed David Byrne, a member of the Kinahan drug-running gang. The attackers were linked to the Hutch gang and the Irish police, the Garda, believe their intended target was Daniel Kinahan. The murderous feud between the Kinahan and Hutch cartels had been sparked by a different shooting in August 2014.

Jamie Moore, who will be in Cameron’s corner as her chief trainer, was shot twice outside Kinahan’s home near Marbella. It was another case of mistaken identity as the authorities eventually established that the shooters had been aiming to kill Kinahan. A month later, while convalescing at home in Manchester, Moore told me how lucky he had been, as one bullet missed an artery by millimetres, and that Kinahan was “a good bloke” in the sense that he supported boxers.

But it has since been accepted in the Irish courts that the Kinahan Organised Crime Group is “involved in drug trafficking, money laundering and gangland executions” worth more than a billion dollars. Daniel Kinahan fled Ireland soon after the Regency attack and he, his father and his brother have been wanted by the Garda and European law enforcement agencies. In 2020, in the Irish parliament, Leo Varadkar discussed these criminal activities with concern and, in regard to Kinahan seeking refuge in Dubai, the Taoiseach, said: ‘While I cannot comment on any particular Garda operation, I can certainly assure you that there has been contact between [Ireland’s] Department of Foreign Affairs and the authorities in the United Arab Emirates.’”

In 2012 Kinahan had set up a boxing management company called MGM, with Matthew Macklin, whom Moore had fought against in 2006 before becoming his trainer. MGM eventually became known as MTK Global.

Kinahan established himself as a boxing power-broker, and continued despite being in hiding, and MTK represented hundreds of fighters across Britain, Ireland and the US. They instigated a ban on all Irish media who shone a light on MTK’s links with Kinahan.

Meanwhile, 18 people have been murdered in the ongoing war between the Kinahan and Hutch gangs. As a result the Garda and insurance companies refused to support professional boxing in Ireland. There have been some small-hall shows but not one promotion of consequence since 2016.

Taylor, an Olympic champion who turned pro that year, has been shut out of her own country. Despite being deeply private, she has been hurt by her exile. Her homecoming will spark an emotional reunion with her adoring fans but the Kinahan saga and the looming battle with Cameron make this a fraught week.

Eric Donovan, a close friend of Taylor’s since they were both on the Irish team in the late 1990s, says: “Katie is such a gentle soul, almost saint-like, but when the bell goes she transforms into this absolute machine and becomes a bad ass. It’s a beautiful, extraordinary thing.”

Donovan, who retired from boxing last November as the European super-featherweight champion, adds: “I have to remind myself that Katie Taylor is a global superstar. In Ireland, she is godly. But she’s just Katie to me, my friend and great old sparring partner who gave me a few digs.”

Kieran Cunningham, a Dublin journalist who has covered Taylor’s career for 15 years, has made an absorbing and fascinating four-part podcast called Untouchable: How Katie Taylor Changed the World. “An annual survey identifies the most admired sportsperson in Ireland,” he says. “Katie wins year after year at a canter. In second place you would have, depending on the time, Roy Keane, Brian O’Driscoll or Rory McIlroy. Big stars in global sports. Katie’s so understated but people like the quietness in her that contradicts what they see in the ring. But being a game-changer is the main reason she’s so admired.”

Cunningham’s podcast is strong on Taylor’s cultural impact on a country which, for centuries, showed particular prejudice against women. He explains how it was written in the Irish constitution that a woman’s place was in the home and his interviewees describe how female rights to contraception, abortion and divorce were shunned.

“Irish women were drowning in babies,” recalls Rosita Sweetman, a founding member of the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement in 1972. Eimear Ryan, an Irish writer who is a similar age to the boxer, acknowledges that Taylor would describe herself as a fighter, and a Christian, rather than a feminist. But Ryan is in awe of Taylor’s pioneering role.

In 2001, aged 15, Taylor fought in the first officially sanctioned female boxing bout in Ireland. Cunningham also points out that Taylor is one of the main reasons why women’s boxing became part of the Olympics. In November 2007, Taylor and Canada’s Katie Dunn fought an exhibition to gauge whether women’s boxing was worthy of an Olympic slot. “Taylor fought out of her skin,” Cunningham says. “She won over the doubters and women’s boxing was given a ticket to the five-ringed circus.”

It took Donovan time to understand his friend’s importance: “Katie was just one of the lads to me. She was so good but, at 13, I was too young to understand the magnitude of this one girl taking part in a man’s sport.”

Taylor would spar with a future two-weight world champion in Carl Frampton – and her gym wars with Paddy Barnes, who won two Olympic medals, became legendary. But Donovan sparred with her more than anyone. “I used to be the opposite of Katie,” he says. “I was an extrovert, a bit wild, but Katie was a huge part of my life. We sparred from 15 and I was her chief sparring partner for London 2012.”

Donovan’s expression clouds briefly. “That was bittersweet because I was a prime candidate for those Olympics. I was in the world top 10 but I had mental issues from childhood trauma. I slipped into addiction.”

He broke his hand during a drunken scrap and lost his chance to fight at the 2012 Games. Donovan slid into depression but “our coach rang me up and said: ‘Look, Eric, will you go to Italy, spar Katie, get her ready for Sofya Ochigava’ – the Russian girl she’d meet in the final. She’s a southpaw. I’m a southpaw. She beat Katie before. She was a big threat.

“Katie was under immense pressure. A huge banner of Katie covered the side of a building in Dublin. It said: ‘Only the strongest shoulders can carry the hopes of a nation.’ Here was a woman with the hopes of a nation to win Olympic gold and she was my friend needing my help. I had to see it as a privilege even though I felt I should have been competing. But it was lovely to be a small part of Katie’s success.”

Cunningham remembers that, before Taylor beat Ochigava in the final, “her first fight was at the Excel Arena against Natasha Jonas. The crowd broke the decibel record at those Games because Katie’s Irish supporters made more noise than Super Saturday [when Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis and Greg Rutherford won gold for Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics].”

Ireland’s love affair with the reclusive Taylor has deepened despite the absence of professional boxing. And last April it seemed as if the net had closed on Kinahan. At an extraordinary press conference in Dublin, the US government vowed to bring Kinahan, and named associates, to justice. MTK collapsed soon afterwards and it seemed that Kinahan’s pernicious hold on boxing had been broken.

But there are persistent rumours Kinahan is still negotiating deals for fighters and talking to major promoters. Cunningham says: “Boxing has carried on as normal. Nothing in terms of its governance has changed. People say Kinahan is pulling the strings behind the scenes with some big fights.”

The Regency shooting has been headline news again. Gerry Hutch was acquitted of murdering Byrne and released from prison in April. But last Friday two men were found guilty of providing getaway vehicles from the Regency and sentenced to lengthy jail terms.

There are other uncomfortable reminders in the build-up to Taylor’s homecoming. After Cameron became the undisputed world champion in Abu Dhabi last November she was joined in the ring by Anthony Fitzpatrick. For Cunningham, “Fitzpatrick is an important figure even if we don’t know his exact connection to Cameron.

“Fitzpatrick had a key managerial role in MTK and he lived in a mansion in Dublin owned by Kinahan. That mansion was seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau last year. There’s no suggestion Fitzpatrick has any involvement in criminality, but he does have connections to Kinahan. I’ve sent a request to Cameron’s team asking about the connection to Fitzpatrick and whether, following the court linking him to Kinahan, they had any concerns. I didn’t get a response.”

As Cunningham stresses, there is no evidence that Fitzpatrick has ever condoned or been involved in any form of criminality. The same applies to Cameron who is focused on her boxing career. She only joined MTK in February 2019 – at a time when the company had distanced itself from Kinahan.

Cunningham, one of the most dogged reporters on Kinahan’s trail, says: “It’s right that questions are asked. Jamie Moore has been supportive of Kinahan. At the press conference in Dublin I asked him whether he regrets that support. He said: ‘We’re not here to talk about that. We’re here to focus on the fight.’ I said this fight is taking place in the north inner city where most people in the Kinahan feud were killed. It’s also the first big fight since all this exploded. He stonewalled again.”

There has been another undertow in Cameron’s insistence that Ellie Scotney be removed from Saturday’s bill. Scotney is trained by Shane McGuigan who also used to train Cameron until she joined MTK. The fallout between Cameron and the McGuigan family has been bitter. Following the Scotney furore, Cameron said in an online statement she had been treated badly by the McGuigans. Shane McGuigan rejected that charge in a detailed reply.

Separately, there is also animosity towards Barry McGuigan, Shane’s father and the former world champion, from those who support MTK and Kinahan. McGuigan Sr was the only person in boxing brave enough to talk out about Kinahan’s malign influence over the fight game in a BBC Panorama investigation in 2021.

Cunningham and Donovan express trepidation when considering Cameron’s threat in the ring. “I’ve talked to a few people who really know boxing and they think Cameron will beat Taylor,” Cunningham says of the Northampton fighter who has won all 17 of her fights. Donovan admits: “You can see the size difference. I’m confident of Katie winning but this is a very dangerous fight. There’s absolutely no doubt this could go wrong.”

In describing Taylor’s “lonely passion”, which alludes to Brian Moore’s moving Belfast novel, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, Cunningham evokes her extraordinary resolve in the solitary business of boxing. But he believes “Katie will feel real pressure because the fight will dominate news bulletins all week and 95% of the crowd will be behind her. It’s a massive test.”

Taylor is often at her best under searing pressure. She showed that last April when, in one of the greatest fights I have seen live, she beat Amanda Serrano in the first women’s bout to headline Madison Square Garden. “She came through that storm and finished like a train,” Donovan recalls. “Something similar might happen here but Cameron is strong.”

Donovan pauses when considering Taylor’s homecoming after the Regency murder brought boxing to a halt in Ireland. “It was terrible. Irish boxing never recovered and it’s only now we’re starting to see a resurrection. The sad part is that boxing provides so much opportunity for marginalised communities. Boxing puts respect and pride into those communities and makes champions of people who might not have other opportunities. The sport I love got dragged into the gutter but Katie is helping bring back the glory. We are only a small island, but some of the greatest nights in this country have come in a boxing ring.”

Taylor has shaped some of those great nights, in rings far from home, and she now has a chance to do so again in Dublin.

“I actually felt she should have walked away after she beat Serrano,” Donovan says. “She had changed the game forever. But the closer we come to this fight the more I understand that boxing is her life. How can you even suggest to somebody who lives for boxing that she should give up? Whenever I am with Katie I see a complete and wholesome person who is hungry to keep raising the bar in boxing. She’s incredible.”

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