Delfine Persoon wants Undisputed fight – reveals Katie Taylor offer

A somewhat downbeat Katie Taylor and Brian Peters addressed Irish media at the end of last year, massively frustrated with the other two lightweight world champions.

The WBA and IBF titleholder has undisputed ambitions but was finding it hard to entice either WBO champ Rose Volante or WBC queen Delfine Persoon into the ring.

The last two months has seen plenty change for the better, though.

Persoon [42(17)-1(1)] was straddled with a mandatory, and defends her green belt versus Melissa St Vil on March 9th, but the Belgian would state that she would be willing to face Taylor [12(5)-0] in the summer if there was an undercard opportunity for any Anthony Joshua card in New York.

Then Volante, after failing to respond to a ‘final offer’, finally relented and will put her pink belt on the line in Philadelphia on March 15th.

The good news kept coming when Joshua was confirmed to be defending his heavyweight belts versus Jarrell Miller in New York on June 1st and now Persoon has revealed that she has received a provisional offer for the Madison Square Garden fight night.

Persoon told Sporza that “my trainer has received an offer from Taylor’s manager, finally, because we never received a positive response to our previous attempts.”

“For at least two years we have been joking that Taylor is planning to wait until I really retire, so I have been looking forward to it for a long time.”

Perhaps a sign of things to come, should both win their March bouts, Persoon was keen to talk about the fractious negotiations.

Team Persoon would offer $170,000 for Taylor to travel to Belgium but this was rejected off hand, with the Irishwoman already earning more for fights on the Sky Sports/DAZN platform.

The Flemish fighter also seems to imply that they have only recently received a first offer to fight Taylor but the Bray boxer and her team have been at pains to describe their difficulties in getting Persoon into the ring.

The 34-year-old long-reigning champ insists she is keen to face Taylor and believes she can beat the Wicklow woman – although is refusing to look past her ninth title defence next month.

Persoon outlined how “boxing against an Olympic champion, it’s a box in my career that I really want to tick.”

“If it could be at Madison Square Garden, that would be great. I’m used to boxing 2,000 people, there can be 20,000 inside. ”

“Everyone, even Taylor, can be beaten, so I hope I can be the one to make it happen.”

“But before we talk about Taylor, I’ll have to win my next fight first – that will not be a gift.”