Katie takes centre stage as Jake shakes on a wild wager

Having vowed to keep his often outrageous personality out of proceedings ahead of the biggest ever fight in women's boxing, in the end, Jake Paul just couldn’t help himself.

The Hulu Theatre at Madison Square Garden was the venue for the pre-fight press conference two days out from Katie Taylor’s highly anticipated world title showdown with Amanda Serrano, and the midtown Manhattan venue was buzzing hours ahead of the live stage show.

And the day couldn’t have started better for the travelling Irish media who were well received at the agreed hour before noon with the promise of an early encounter with Katie ahead of the live event.

Half an hour was no time at all to wait – especially with a table full of free Dunkin Donuts and coffee – for a 20-minute sit-down with the star of the show.

A round-table affair in one of the theatre dressing rooms; not for the first time this week, Katie took centre stage, and enthralled the assembled crew with an open, interesting, honest, and unexpectedly humourous exchange.

A wide-ranging chat spanning Saturday’s fight, Katie's Olympic highs and lows, paying tribute to her "Irish brother and sister" sparring partners Myles Casey and Amy Broadhurst, while also paying homage to the great Irish fighters, Barry McGuigan, Steve Collins and Wayne McCullough.

As predicted, Katie said that Serrano was a respectful fight and was unlikely to bring the trash talk to the live event – she didn’t – however, the Irish star unintentionally brought her own bit of trash talk to the chat as she threw up some air-inverted commas as she spoke about a Jake Paul "fight".

She then admitted, still laughing, that it would be her biggest fear to be on the undercard of a Jake Paul main event, before adding that he was