Following her impressive debut victory over Polish fighter Karina Kopinska, Katie Taylor may be kept waiting a while before fighting in Ireland for the first time as a professional.
The Bray woman wowed the British fight community with an explosive TKO3 of Kopinska, a former opponent of Christina McMahon who had previously been stopped just twice in 24 contests. Her promoter, Eddie Hearn, struggled to contain his excitement as Taylor's feverishly anticipated pro journey kicked off in earnest, but the Matchroom head honcho explained that a shot at America will precede any big homecoming for the Irish boxing icon.
Hearn told the Examiner:
I think, realistically [it will be] five or six before we go back to Ireland. We want to go out to box in America, see what happens there, give her a chance to become a superstar… then back to Ireland for the big one.
When asked by Ed Robinson after her fight about potential fights in Ireland, Taylor herself told Sky Sports that a world title fight on home soil would be 'the dream', indicating she'll remain patient and fight on the road as she continues to build her profile abroad.
She returns to action in just two weekends' time, on the undercard of Anthony Joshua's pay-per-view fight in Manchester, and will make her US debut on Gennady Golovkin's undercard at Madison Square Garden on March 18th - just a day after her former Irish teammate Michael Conlan makes his pro bow in the garden arena at the same venue.
Should she continue to progress, however, undercards will soon become a thing of the past, as Hearn acknowledged when he suggested he might be forced to look at bigger venues than Dublin's 3Arena:
I believe she can win a world title now, but there is no value in winning a world title now. Let’s become huge and then go to, I thought the 3Arena, but now I guess we’ll have to say Croke Park.
MSG on Patrick's weekend will, in all likelihood, be Taylor's third pro bout. If the plan is to fight for a world title five or six fights down the line, it's conceivable that Taylor's homecoming will be delayed until early 2018. But should she continue winning, it promises to be a monumental event.
