Ready for War: Katie Taylor’s Tried-and-Trusted Approach to Training

Having despatched everyone who could challenge for the crown in the lightweight division, Katie Taylor steps up from her undisputed, four-belt reign up a bracket to the super lightweight scene.

Here, the Irish pugilist meets the recently crowned undisputed champion of the division, Chantelle Cameron, who shockingly conquered Jessica McCaskill to add the WBO and WBA World titles to her collection.

Taylor comes up as the 22-0 greatest female boxer in the sport right now. Still, at 31 years old, the 17-0 Cameron is younger, undefeated, and much more naturally suited to the super lightweight division.

As such, this could prove to be the toughest challenge yet for the 2012 Olympic gold medallist. The two will meet at the 3Arena in Dublin on 20 May for a scheduled bout of ten rounds of two minutes each.

It’s been an unnecessarily tough road for the Bray boxer to get this massive homecoming fight finally pencilled in, but it’ll soon be upon us, and Taylor will already be deep in her camp grinding away to get every advantage possible over ‘Il Capo.’

Pushing to keep the Dublin date

Katie Taylor was originally scheduled to rumble with Amanda Serrano again on 20 May, with the 44-1-1 Puerto Rican seeking to avenge her loss at Madison Square Garden on 30 April 2022. Unfortunately, Serrano had to pull out due to injury, leaving an opening in Taylor’s schedule.

As a result, the champ was forced into an unusual move for demeanour, taking to social media to pressure Eddie Hearn, Matchroom, and DAZN to keep the date and throw Chantelle Cameron into the fire. 

After the pressure was put on Hearn, he cemented the deal and the fight, with Taylor publically agreeing to step up in weight to face Cameron and try to become the undisputed champ in two weight divisions at once. There was a worry, however, that the promoter was going to upstage the most feared woman in boxing.

This was the concern when it appeared that the UFC’s Conor McGregor looked to be coming into the show. DAZN hasn’t been shy of staging celebrity-driven events in boxing, so it seemingly wasn’t off the cards, but it’s since been made clear that his involvement is merely a company collaboration.

With that to one side, we can rest assured that Taylor will get the spotlight that someone of her talent and reign deserves – which is all of it. Still, on paper, this looks to be the Irishwoman’s toughest battle yet. She’s stepping up against a well-respected and younger fighter who only seems to improve with each passing fight.

Taylor’s wrecker style of boxing is well known, and Cameron’s coach, Jamie Moore, says that he’ll be encouraging his boxer to get on the inside, close the gap, and not try to out-box the un-out-boxable. However, it’d seem unwise to try and beat KT in a head-to-head brawl up close, as when those canons get going, few last long without taking visible damage.

An immense athlete getting fighting fit

Head movement and raw power define most of Taylor’s successes in the ring, and all while her feet keep moving in a progressive, even predatory direction. As you’d expect from someone with such a high boxing IQ, she does a lot of very high-intensity sparring, bag work, and technical work.

However, these elements are typically reserved for the evenings of each training day – of which there are six per week. In the mornings, it’s all about weights, perhaps some pad work, and the always-crucial running and roadwork. Pounding the pavements is key to her regime.

This certainly doesn’t come as a surprise, given Taylor’s athletic history. Proving her sheer athleticism, the Irish brawler was once a very talented footballer, earning 19 caps and two goals for the senior Republic of Ireland team before committing to boxing. That engine continues to power her to this day, and could have come in handy for the national team today.

Women’s football is bigger than ever, but for the upcoming World Cup, as of 28 March, Ireland are out at 125/1 to win in the sports betting – way back of the 11/4 USA team and 4/1 England. Even though that same mindset that brought KT to the pinnacle of boxing would have served well in football, few would begrudge the switch now.

The lower-body strength, stamina, and ankle stability built up through football are clearly still serving KT well, especially as roadwork has remained a staple of her exercise regime. As for diet, because she trains so much and is always sensible, Taylor rarely finds herself needing to quickly cut to make weight. If anything, this time around, she’ll be encouraged to be more relaxed to help put on the weight for the jump-up.

Crucial to her whole schedule is variety. She won’t stick to a rigid daily format or drill through the exact same combinations each session. Instead, she’ll be drawn in to try out new combinations in the pad session or face a mismatch opponent in sparring. To maintain strength, though, there is continuity in always trying to end sessions with press-ups and sit-ups.

Already one of – if not the – greatest female fighter in boxing, Katie Taylor is already hard at work to enhance her legacy and become an unprecedented undisputed champion at two weights.