Katie Taylor has strongly refuted claims that she demonstrated "a lack of a boxing brain" during her first title defence against American Jessica McCaskill.
Securing a unanimous points decision over McCaskill in London's York Hall, the BBC's Mike Costello and Steve Bunce were less than flattering when discussion turned toward Taylor's performance.
While Costello and Bunce are not the only ones to suggest that Taylor perhaps has room to improve, Taylor took the opportunity today to respond on Twitter to the suggestion that the BBC pundits may have had a point.
Do they have a point? https://t.co/4rigyqRva1
— Irish-Boxing.com (@Irishboxingcom) December 22, 2017
In an unusually forthright move for the Bray native, she was intent to dispel any notion that she lacked a "boxing brain."
No they don't. I would've thought that people making those comments would have some knowledge. The reason I won the fight well is cos I used my boxing brain and outsmarted my opponent. If people who particularly are involved in boxing can't see that, they are absolutely clueless.
— Katie Taylor (@KatieTaylor) December 22, 2017
In maintaining her 100% start to professional boxing, the WBA middleweight champion has been accused of giving a "scrappy performance" against McCaskill, demonstrating "just how leaky [her] defence is", according to Costello and Bunce:
There were times in the fight when she was launching single shots, single jabs, single right hands. She could not miss. It was so easy, and I use that word, it was so easy.
I was a little bit surprised by how often she was hit by a six-bout novice.
Although rumours of Taylor's difficulties against McCaskill have been recently dispelled by her coach, Ross Enamait, this range of public criticism is about as usual for Taylor as her public response.
Whether Taylor's reaction reflects a more widely felt consensus amongst her promotion team that she ought to develop her public profile, or is merely evidence of her consternation at the poor judgement of the BBC pundits, the 8-0 boxer will now look toward 2018 with the hope that she can demonstrate the full effects of her "boxing brain" for all to see.
