bit of a shock !

lynnemc

http://www.eubc-boxing.eu/news-231.html
Is it the first loss in 42 bouts !

Hangballlouie

f##k me! She didnt look great last week but jesus. To be honest, it was on the cards that this would happen. Its all well and good talking about the shoo-in 4 gold in london, but if she isnt getting regular fights and at a good to high level, then this can happen. Ive no doubt the russian and chinese boxers are getting prepared correctly. This is in no way a slight on katie. The iaba just expect her to win!

walshb

That is a shock alright, and the score line suggests a bit of a dominant
win too. That girl was moving up from Feather, so we must assume that
she was the naturally smaller girl.

Is Katie being overworked? I mean, two fights last week on consecutive nights and then she heads over to the Czech Republic to a tourny?

Maybe this is the best thing that could happen to her. Far too many are placing too much pressure and emphasis on this "certain" gold medal.
Now, this medal is gonna' be really really earned and fought for. It may
make Katie even hungrier to succeed.

Taylor has guts and skill and character. Lets see how much she has and hopefully she can bounce back and take this Russian on again and beat her, and beat her again.

It's a bit of a shame it happened so close to her White House visit.

lynnemc

After seeing a picture if the Russian girl I remember reading that she won boxer of the tournament in the women s Europeans last year ! Think she is 2008 world champion -57kgs too !

walshb

lynnemc wrote: »

After seeing a picture if the Russian girl I remember reading that she won boxer of the tournament in the women s Europeans last year ! Think she is 2008 world champion -57kgs too !

Yes, she is/was a 57 kg world champion.

No dud, that is for sure.. And you can bet that late this year, next year and the Olympic year, there will be many more major threats at Katie's weight

nacho libre

Perhaps she became a bit complacent winning all the time.
isn't the old saying that you learn more from your defeats.
So with this in mind hopefully this loss will prove to be exactly what she needed to spur her to go all the way...

mjon3105

I agree. Here is an extract from a piece I wrote just a few of hours after the defeat in Czech Republic,for the EuropeanIrish.com website: .


"Well Katie has lost at last to Russia's Sofya Ochigava at the Grand Prix tournament in Czech Republic . In my view this will help considerably to ease the huge pressure upon her to keep up the magnificent record of recent years.
Recent difficulties with the IABA over whether or not she could take part in a ProAm tournament will not have helped. In today's semi final Ms Taylor was comprehensively beaten 8-1 over 4 two minute rounds.


The world of women's boxing has changed since the announcement re its inclusion in the Olympics but only with 3 weight classes as many of those in weights above and below her have had to join the 60kg class, Ms Ochigava included. Katie has generously given of her time to help more or less every cause in recent years and has been much in demand for Radio,TV and other media appearances. She needs. a good holiday 'far from the madding crowd'.,and thoroughly relax away from media attention.
Up to now the routine has been train hard, go to Championships abroad, hardly ever see much of the place other than the boxing and training arenas, win a Gold medal,straight back to Dublin Airport ,more media attention,not only that day but in the week(s) that follow and then more training.

She and her Father/Coach Peter have been consistently saying that London is a Long way off but despite their warnings the Irish public (to a very large extent) and the media have been suggesting that all she has to do is turn up in London to claim the Gold medal - absolute nonsense of course.,as I have warned in previous despatches last Autumn.(( And as "WalshB" and a few others have said on this forum))

She will I believe come back all the stronger from this setback.
Ochigava has an excellent track record having herself won 2 world titles and 3 European ones. Only last week Katie took part in two special bouts on Friday and Saturday against a "tough" Ukranian in Dublin's National Stadium. Today's was already her third bout this week in the Czech Republic.

Her unbeaten run is likely to last a very long time and her main aim now should be retaining her World title in Barbados in September. As Vincent Hogan recently said in the "Irish Independent" , the IABA need to start treating her as a "person" and not a commodity. Next week she is off to the United States to celebrate St Patrick's Day at the invitation of Michelle Obama, herself a former boxer,one understands.Also there will be Padraig Harrington and the usual political figures led by Brian Cowen. "

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/vincent-hogan-iaba-must-treat-taylor-as-a-person--not-a-commodity-2042085.html


Additional comments:-Above is the is the link to the Vincent Hogan article for those who have not seen it before and though I do agree "in principle" that amateurs and pros should not feature on same bill sometimes there are exceptionally good reasons not to stick to 'principles' and I do believe that this should NOT be applied to women's boxing for one special reason. Unlike men's boxing which is very well established the same cannot be said about the women's sport and it can ONLY grow in popularity if viewers,especially in "rural Ireland" (too far away from Dublin to go to an amateur event at Stadium) see for themselves Katie in action. Since no Irish media ever cover her live fights in such as World Championships etc all they see if the arrival at Dublin Airport and Gold medal celebrations.The only one major occasion she was on RTE WAS on the Pro-Am event as part of the Bernard Dunne world title fight and what a success that was and a great "eye opener" to the many viewers who had never seen a womens boxing contest previously so yes,the IABA, in my humble opinion SHOULD allow women's boxing to develop by having more Katie Taylor fights in Ireland on live TV be they on Pro-Am events or not.... If they do NOT then the great work of such as the Taylors, Anja Norman,Bernard O'Neill (IABA P.R.O) and others may well be in vain. True there are other promising boxers around like Sinead Kavanagh, Kelly Harrington and a few even younger ones in rural areas like Fermoy,Dungarvan,.Westport etc but they and the ladies champions of the future do need encouragement....

I believe that we should take a different view on women's pro am than men's though I expect in this politically correct day and age in UK and Ireland I am no doubt in breach of some law or another in so saying!
'Que sera,sera".... but one thing is sure and that is that Katie Taylor will be back and all the stronger BUT so too will the competition be getting better and better as 2012 nears. Fascinating days ahead but I for one have every confidence in "Team Taylor" to look at that defeat and come back even stronger.....Sorry about the long post....

Mike

ps: and a link ( and photo) to some (2009) background info on SOFYA OCHIGAVA here (for the record she won the final against Cheng Dong in Czech Republic 7:1)

http://www.aiba.org/en-US/news/ozqsp/newsId/2643/news.aspx

walshb wrote: »

That is a shock alright, and the score line suggests a bit of a dominant
win too. That girl was moving up from Feather, so we must assume that
she was the naturally smaller girl.

walshb

Thanks Mike for the detailed post.

I found it quite odd that this loss wasn't bigger news really. It was in the News Of The World yesterday, but the article was more to do with Taylor and the Pro scene.

RTE have a news article on the loss, but no real fuss. This is the worlds best female boxer, or at least one of them. I thought a little more would have came of this loss.

Anyway, Taylor needs to be 100 percent boxing committed, leave the media circuit to the side now and get on with winning and training.

This has proved to me what I already thought, that the gold was winnable, but in no way a certainty. And, from now until 2012 it will only get tougher. Girls moving up in weight and those coming down in weight.

BTW, my view is that from here in, the pro offer will be more
and more tempting. It's not simply a case of win gold, turn pro and make
loads of money. The Gold is now a tougher ask, and is Katie willing to wait
over two years to "try and get it?"

mjon3105

Hi Bren

Whilst I would "Never say never" I seriously doubt she will turn pro. Whenever I have interviewed her be it in Dublin or in Liverpool she has always been adamant that she would NOT turn pro until after 2012 IF womens boxing was accepted in London Olympics. OK so that was before the August 15th vote.

Here is what she has said most recently in this quote from "Irish Examiner" - in particular read last three or four paragraphs. And although the Czech Republic defeat is "insignificant" in the world context, her "value" (as a Pro) would go down dramatically if she were to lose her World title in September or even the European Union one a couple of months earlier.(especially if to the Russian again as is the most likely in short term.


Examiner link:
http://www.examiner.ie/text/sport/kfkfcweysney/

Insofar as the lack of media coverage at weekend is concerned I think it was much as I expected since RTE/Indo,Examiner and Irish Times (in Ireland) as well as W.B.A.N in USA all rely on "press releases" from teh IABA's Bernard O'Neill (no,not a relative) when KT fights outside of Ireland. Bernard was hismelf "shocked" no doubt and was in any event very very busy with the two Ireland v Italy men's internationals at the weekend.


I do respect your views and you could just be right somehow this time I doubt it. I think she will be in London competing for Ireland unless something "completely unforeseen" happens eg: an injury or accident or some such event that would prevent her from being there.

Take care

Mike

JacksonHeightsOwn

this loss wont do her any harm, she'll be better for it

ive only seen her box in person maybe 5 times... and the pressure on the girl is massive, more than any of the male boxers have to deal with.

another thing, and i dont want to sound like a begrudger, but ive always thought the scoring for her, when she boxes over here, is overly biased......and imo, her constant landslide victories would only hamper her progression, not enhance it

sure anybody would think they're the mutts nuts when you win every fight by 20 points

time to give the girl some much needed space, and just her get back to boxing, and not having to pose for 100's of photos for some moron to put on their facebook page

joepenguin

The fact that she has 2 years of getting used to opponents upping their game till the olympics will be a good thing. She is an outstanding talent and probably still favourite to win 2012 gold, she will only improve on the lead up to the games and most likely value her achievments more knowing that the standard is been raised.

walshb

What I find hard to believe is that Taylor could have only scored a single point in 3 or 4 rds? Has anyone a video of this fight. I am sure it was recorded.

makl

http://ustecky.denik.cz/multimedia/galerie/1986368.html

type in katie taylorová in google to get any czech coverage of it

makl

http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/program/10284506712-14.03.2010-12:10-4-gp-usti-nad-labem-v-boxu.html?online=1


my inet connection fairly weak but this vid is the 60kg final between cheng dong and ochigava - keeps stoppin so cant fastforward to look for highlights of any of the semifinal at moment. could someone do it on a better connection? thanks

mjon3105

Thanks MAKL for that helpful info.

Here is a "link" to the video in question.; works for me fine in both reaL media and windows media viewer........... Mike

http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/program/10284506712-14.03.2010-12:10-4.html?fromvoted=1&online=1





my inet connection fairly weak but this vid is the 60kg final between cheng dong and ochigava - keeps stoppin so cant fastforward to look for highlights of any of the semifinal at moment. could someone do it on a better connection? thanks[/QUOTE]

mjon3105

You can find clips from most of that fight if you check in to the well known site :

www.dailymotion.com/ie and when you are faced with choosing from menu enter (in the search box) : katie taylor boxing


The Ochigava fight you will find indexed as: katie taylor v russia Part 3, Part 2, Part 1 .Also worth a look at (same page) is one of KT's earlier fights against Sweden's Clara Svensson and also a clip of England's world championship silver medallist Nikki Adams explaining the "weight related" problems facing the majority of boxers for the 2012 games, being only 3 womens weights. Nikki may well be one of KT's main competitors in London as will Ochigava and .... possibly .... Turkey's Gulsum Tatar who has defeated Katie more than once in the past.

Thanks to the French boxing enthusiast aalyah33 for uploading the fight against Ochigava. After viewing it once or twice do YOU believe that the 8-1 verdict in favour of the Russian was a fair reflection of what you see in the clips shown ? You will also find other Katie Taylor fights on sites such as YOU TUBE, AOL VIDEO etc etc ... and of course "hundreds of clips" from men's boxing contests old and new.

Mike

ps: well we now know that England's Nikki Adams will move down to the 51kg class as Great Britain has already chosen an elite squad of 7 for London 2012 to undergo comprehensive training with aid of a very significant much needed UK Sport grant . Among KT's possible competitors will be Natasha Jonas of Liverpool or Amanda Coulson of Hartlepool. The 7 will be further reduced to 3 (1 at each weight months before the games start. Savannah Marshall alone is nominated in the 75kg class).

lynnemc

Well I don't know what bout the judges were watching with the 7-1 scoreline ! they must be blind. Taylor scored about 5 clean right hands in the 3rd round alone !

mjon3105

Well I must say I was surprised at the 8-1 verdict but then the fight WAS in one of the former Eastern European bloc countries and one is led to believe that at least two of the judges were from former Soviet bloc countries. I'm sure that that was how they genuinely saw the fight but then many who saw the KT-Caroline Barry fight on RTE did not think that the 27-3 scoreline was a fair reflection of the score either. The European Union championships in Hungary this Summer and the World Championships in Barbados late September should show us just how good Ochigava is ... or not .So too will we see not only Katie Taylor but also many competitors who have moved up or down from other weights including England's Nikki Adams and many Eastern Europeans who have not appeared in the 60kg division before now. Should be a very interesting year but clearly as she has often said herself Katie Taylor will have many many serious competitors in the future now that Womens' Boxing has at long last been given its rightful place in the Olympic Games.

IF Sinead Kavanagh is chosen for either the EU or the Worlds this year she will come across a new 18years old from Hartlepool, named Savannah Marshall, who is another one to watch for the future especially for 2012., The Great Britain team management has already announced a high performance squad of 7 to train for the 2012 Olympic Games with 'serious funding' from the UK Sport authority . The Irish Sports Council and the IABA needs to find ways of further developing womens boxing in Ireland and that means further significant funds being made available,difficult though that may be at the present time.

walshb

Taylor won that fight, and won it well IMO. One ****ing score? Disgusting.

She was better in all areas, style, movement, speed, delivery and scores.

I had it about 14-9 or 15-9 for Taylor.

Why have none of the media raised this issue? They reported the loss, but a bit of research and they could have told the general public that the fight was dubious.

Even at the end you can see Peter Taylor looks pleased with Katie, as if he thinks she
has won; now, is he privy to the score before it's read out?

Mike, excellent research to get that fight up

walshb

lynnemc wrote: »

Well I don't know what bout the judges were watching with the 7-1 scoreline ! they must be blind. Taylor scored about 5 clean right hands in the 3rd round alone !

8-1 scoreline I thought? Unbelievably bad judging.

lynnemc

Yeah your right 8-1. my mistake !

mjon3105

Bit of a shock? Yes, and for me too! I have just had a much closer look at this contest and though I was assured by the overseas journalist who identified it for me as being of KT's fight against Ochigava upon studying it more closely I am now reasonably sure it is not but is from the 2008 World Championships in China. Am seeking further clarification and will update further later but I am now very doubtful that it was from the recent Ochigava fight. Ayzznat Gadzhieva may well be the Russian in that clip ,from Ningbo City , and if so as I recall, Katie won rather easily.