Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn discussed Katie Taylor's determination to address any doubts about her first victory when she meets Delphine Persoon in a hotly-anticipated rematch next weekend.
From the moment she reached her dressing-room in the aftermath of beating Delphine Persoon a little over one year ago, Katie Taylor began waiting for a rematch that will materialise next weekend.
In a flawless professional career that has seen the Wicklow native become an undisputed world champion boxer, it is that bout with the Belgian in New York City that resembles the closest thing to an asterisk.
"That was one of the best fights I've ever seen," remarked Taylor's promoter Eddie Hearn on Tuesday's OTB AM.
"But the truth is, since that final bell rang and she heard that there were people who thought Delphine Persoon had won that fight, she wanted that rematch.
"In her mind she won the fight, but if there were any doubts, any questions - which there were - she wanted to put them right."
1 June 2019; Katie Taylor, right, and Delfine Persoon during their Undisputed Female World Lightweight Championship fight at Madison Square Garden in New York, USA. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/SportsfileA fight that will take place on the under-card of Dillian Whyte's heavyweight bout with Alexander Povetkin on Saturday week, Hearn has been taken aback by the break in Taylor's usually calm facade in the build-up.
"It is strange seeing Katie in a grudge match," he admitted. "I did a press conference the other night on Zoom with the pair of them and you could cut the tension with a knife.
"I mean, Katie can be cold. When you meet someone that is so driven and so single-minded in her life about what she wants, then all of a sudden this other fighter is calling her a 'paper champ' and overrated, I could feel Katie fuming."
Despite her unblemished professional record thus far, Hearn believes that the Olympic gold medalist's career will reach a crucial juncture in the Persoon rematch.
"She has always been a trailblazer," he explained, "but throughout everything that she has achieved this Delphine Persoon rematch is a fight that she really must win.
"Everyone knows how rough that fight was. So, to take Persoon on seven weeks notice, [it wasn't ideal], but Katie was just like, 'Yes!'
"It is quite rare to see a fighter just jump into a rematch like that at such short notice. It is going to be an amazing fight."
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