Katie Taylor defended her IBF and WBA world titles against Kimberly Connor after a brutal third-round stoppage at London’s O2 Arena on Saturday 28th July.
The win makes it ten professional wins from ten for Katie and this marked her fifth knockout of her career.
The unified champion, walked out to her iconic song of choice, Blur’s ‘Song 2’. Katie, whose repertoire is rapidly growing on an international stage, was undoubtedly the crowd favourite in London as she was greeted with a rapturous reception.
Although Katie put an end to the fight in round three after some brutal punching combinations, it wasn’t all plain sailing for the Bray woman.
In the first round, Katie dominated Kimberly Connor with incredible fast hands and terrific footwork. Connor did however manage to land some blows to Katie on her inside, which has been noted as a potential weakness from previous fights.
With seconds left in the first round and after dominating the majority of it, Katie was left with a huge swelling under her right-eye as the pair accidentally clashed heads.
It was cause for concern for Katie’s corner as it looked like it could impair her vision. In the end, Katie showed why she is untouchable at the moment, as the Olympic champion took the first two rounds and ended proceedings in the third.
After some frightening power shots, Katie landed a flurry of combinations and a thunderous right hook which rocked Connor and left her dazed. Katie moved in for the kill and landed another powerful right before the referee rightly stepped in to stop the fight.
Katie spoke after the fight saying "I thought the finish was definitely a huge improvement. In previous fights, when I hurt someone I would have rushed in but I stayed nice and composed today. I'm very happy with the finish obviously. Especially seeing as I got a lump under my eye, I was happy to finish early."
Katie will now defend her belt against Puerto Rican, Cindy Serrano. The fight is due to take place in Chicago in the first week of October.
