KATIE TAYLOR TO BOX IN CORK NEXT MONTH

Katie Taylor

Katie Taylor

 

Katie Taylor will be back in Cork next month for her first competitive outing before April’s Olympic qualifiers in Istanbul, Turkey.

The five-time AIBA World Elite champion is slated to meet Serbia-born Jelena Jelic on a Kanturk BC hosted show on February 19th at the Dromtariffe Community Hall in Kanturk

Jelic, who lives in Sweden, has represented Serbia at three weights and is currently ranked No. 26 in the world by AIBA. She reached the last-eight of the European Games in Azerbaijan last year.

Jim McConville of the Kanturk BC said the club is thrilled to have the Olympic champion in Duhallow.

“A lot of very hard work is going into organising this event. Kanturk Boxing Club are just thrilled to have Katie fight in our terrain. We are very excited about this,” he said..

Next month’s outing will be Taylor first since she beat Tipperary’s Shauna O’Keefe last November’s Elite to win her first lightweight title in the ring at the National Stadium in Dublin.

O’Keefe, who boxes out of the Clonmel BC, was the first Irishwoman to challenge Taylor at Elite level at the home of Irish boxing since the then 15-year-old Bray woman beat Alanna Audley-Murphy in the first officially IABA sanctioned female bout in Ireland at the National Stadium in 2001.

The European Olympic qualifiers for men and women are scheduled to begin on April 21 in Istanbul, Turkey, although the start date could be changed to earlier in April.