Katie Taylor: ‘I was walking to some boxing gyms as a young girl being sniggered at and laughed at’

Fight week on Dublin’s northside. Katie Taylor walks into her last few days as a boxer the same way she hopes to walk out. Fists clenched, smile wide, the roars of a partisan crowd assailing her. Ready for the cavalcade of lasts that lie before her as the hours tick down to Croke Park on Saturday night.

Her last press conference. Her last public workout. Her last pre-fight interviews. Her last submission to boxing’s hokey charade, slapping on a mean face for the stare-down with challenger Flora Pili before clasping the French woman in an embrace once the cameras are lowered, like they’re old friends who’ve bumped into each other after church.