IN ALL FAIRNESS - Realism needed if Katie is to fulfil her Croke Park dream
Katie Taylor’s latest addition to her already lengthy litany of achievements was the only show in town last weekend. At 37, the Bray native had nothing more to prove to anybody ahead of last Saturday nights rematch against Chantel Cameron, who had handed her only professional defeat six months previous.
Some wondered, like me, was that the end of Katie as time is unbeaten against everyone but one person you don’t doubt is Ireland’s greatest ever sports-woman. Breaking down barriers is what she has done all her life and recovering from a rare loss was just another one of them and she did that in spectacular fashion with a deserved victory.
Well, I’m only going on what I have read as I didn’t see the fight as I didn’t purchase it via DAZN, in fact I have never purchased a fight, it’s nothing against boxing, its just that I don’t have the interest level to justify it. To that end, it is incredible the stature Katie is still able to achieve when much of the country doesn’t get to see her fight. This isn’t a crib about the big fights being behind a pay-wall as that ship has long since left the port.
Going behind a pay-wall doesn’t hurt a fighter financially as there generally are more than enough subscribers, die-hard boxing fans if you will, to make it viable. Unlike many other sports who require viewers to keep advertisers happy, boxing and the likes of UFC, don’t tend to need it as their marquee events tend to sell themselves.
But it does make you wonder what boxing and Katie Taylor have missed out on if, for example, her fight was live on RTE or Virgin Media last Saturday night, in front of a huge viewership, many getting to see her in action for the first time since her amateur days when her fights were free-to-air. Imagine the excitement on Sunday morning across the country with people chatting, did you see the fight? Not that they’d have a huge interest in boxing, but they would have watched it because of Katie, and in Ireland, we will follow our heroes, no matter what the sport.
A third instalment of Taylor/Cameron is likely to take place next summer with Croke Park, the mooted venue, particularly as it is Taylor’s stated dream to fight there, as the greatest female boxer, just as the greatest Mohammad Ali did in 1972 when he defeated Al ‘Blue’ Lewis.
You would think that the pull of Katie Taylor should see her more than fill the 80,000 capacity venue and put her in the calibre of Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua who have regularly sold out Wembley Stadium with 90,000 people.
Sadly, as with many things, money tends to be the stumbling block, with the costs involved in staging such an event, indeed any event in Ireland, tending to be higher than most other countries. The sticking block seems to be over security with Katie’s promoter Eddie Hearn wanting Croke Park to cover a large element of the security costs, aka the Gardai, which are generally covered by the promoter. Why you might ask is this different than any other fight, well professional boxing in Ireland became a virtual non-event following the Regency Hotel shooting in 2016 and Katie Taylor’s two fights this year in the 3 Arena being the first large scale boxing events since then. The 3 Arena can cater for 13,000 fans so a Croke Park fight would be looking at six times that number of spectators that so requires much more security.
You would like to think that some common ground might be found between all parties, with Eddie Hearn stating that Katie deserves to maximise as much money as she can, as is her right considering it could be her biggest pay-day in what could be her last ever fight, but Croke Park shouldn’t be expected to be the ones footing the bill for extras outside of their remit. Some have suggested that the government should step in and foot the difference but that would be a dangerous road to go down, if any sport decided to back a host into a corner, knowing the government may foot the extra cash, and certainly the government have greater needs for where it allocates its revenue at the moment.