Katie Taylor: ‘It’s the biggest fight, not only in women’s boxing but the whole sport’

The hushed and exclusive New York Athletic Club on Central Park South is a long way from St Fergal’s Boxing Club in Bray, County Wicklow, where Katie Taylor first pulled on the gloves in a remarkable career which will reach a crescendo on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. Taylor moves through the strange new surroundings with a light touch, smiling and chatting as we meander down the opulent corridors in search of a suite where she will consider the danger she faces against Amanda Serrano in the most significant fight in the brief history of women’s boxing.

Taylor and Serrano will become the first female fighters to headline a bill at the Garden and the first women to make well over $1m each from a single bout. At least in this superficial sense our lavish surroundings make sense. But Taylor would be more at home in a gritty gym and I am so unsuited to the high life that urgent talks were held in the lobby to decide whether I should even be allowed into this enclave of privilege. Having rolled straight off the plane from London and hopped into a cab to see Taylor on time, I am still in my creased and possibly grubby old jeans. I failed the dress code and a compromise was finally struck where I was granted entry into the club via a service elevator at the back of the building.

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Taylor is amused and relaxed and, knowing how much she usually loathes interviews, press conferences and any kind of fuss, it is striking to gauge her amiable mood as we approach the biggest fight of her life. When I ask if everything feels more serious now, she makes a key distinction. “The part that feels much more intense is the media