Opponent confirmed for Katie Taylor fight on Haye-Bellew undercard

Katie Taylor [2(1)-0] will kick off her 2017 this weekend against Italian opposition.

The Bray lightweight will feature on the Sky pay-per-view undercard of the heavyweight grudge match between David Haye and Tony Bellew.

Taylor’s opponent here will be Monica Gentili [6(1)-6(1)]. The Lazio 39 year old comes into the bout off the back of a two fight winning streak and is a former two-time Italian title challenger and has also lost to current European champion Ewa Brodnicka.

The challenge posed by Gentili should be rather gentle, however the Italian is a late replacement. It had been Taylor’s team’s intention to pit her against Bulgarian Milena Kovleva [9(3)-7(1)-1]. The Eastern European last month challenged for the IBF world title, being stopped in the ninth round by reigning champ Maiva Hamadouche. However, a chest infection saw Kovleva withdraw last week.

Taylor’s fight this Saturday, which is scheduled to take place at around 8:30pm, features on an undercard that also includes big match ups between Paulie Malignaggi and Sam Eggington, and Derry Matthews and Ohara Davies.