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Katie Taylor determined to dominate Delfine Persoon and prove the doubters wrong

She is not seeking revenge or redemption considering she won, but Katie Taylor [15(6)-0] does want to rectify some people’s opinions with regard to her and Delfine Persoon [44(18)-2(1)].

The Bray native become Ireland’s first undisputed world champion of the four belt era when she defeated the Belgian at Madison Square Garden in June of 2019.

The Irish sensation got the nod in a very close, very competitive and very entertaining ‘all the marbles’ battle.

Two scores of 96-94 tipped the bout in the now two weight world champions favour, the third judge calling it a draw at 95 points apiece.

While there mass acclaim for both fighter’s performance and the battle itself there was criticism in some quarters for the scoring.

There are a cohort who believe the veteran Belgian, who has since attempted to qualify for the Olympics, won the fight.

That seems to rankle with the London 2012 gold medal winner and she is determined to prove she is the better of the two in a rematch.

Taylor’s legacy as an all time great should be statue concrete if she wins her next fight – set to be against seven weight world champion Amanda Serrano – and follows it with a win over ‘First Lady’ Cecilia Braekhus.

However, she still wants the Persoon return and has her sights set on ‘dominating’ the teak tough former world champ.

“The Persoon rematch is important because a lot of people had her winning the fight, so I definitely need to put that to bed,” explains Taylor.

“The next time I fight her I’ll put on a better performance. It was a particularly bad performance that night but I dug deep and got the win in a close fight. It could have gone the other way but I’m grateful it went my way.

“I’m looking forward to the rematch and to put on a dominating performance.”

Jonny Stapleton

Irish-boxing.com contributor for 15 years and editor for the past decade. Have been covering boxing for over 16 years and writing about sports for a living for over 20 years. Former Assistant Sports editor for the Gazette News Paper Group and former Tallaght Voice Sports Editor. Have had work published in publications around the world when working as a freelance journalist. Also co-founder of Junior Sports Media and Leinster Rugby PRO of the Year winner. email: editoririshboxing@gmail.com

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