Yahoo Finance Yahoo Sports Female Boxer of the Year: Katie Taylor by a wide decision
Katie Taylor fought three times in 2019, winning all three, including one by knockout. The combined record of her opponents at the time she fought them in 2019 was 69-2. All three were world champions.
She knocked out Rose Volante in the ninth round in March in a lightweight unification bout, adding the WBO title to the IBF-WBA belts she held. On June 1 in what was probably the women’s Fight of the Year, she became the undisputed lightweight champion when she added the WBC belt after winning a majority decision over Delfine Persoon.
She moved up to super lightweight on Nov. 2 and lifted the WBO belt from Christina Linardatou via unanimous decision.
It’s all enough to make her the 2019 Yahoo Sports Female Boxer of the Year.
Taylor is now 15-0 with six knockouts as a pro, following up on a brilliant amateur career in which she went 175-10-1 with 34 knockouts, appeared in two Olympic Games and won a gold medal in 2012.
She turned pro after a split decision loss to Mira Potkonen in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and instantly became a star. As a pro, 10 of her 15 bouts have been for world titles and she fought opponents with a combined record of 211-53-10, a winning percentage of 78.8.
She’s not a huge puncher, but her power is improving as she showed in the Persoon fight, and she puts her punches together well. She’s among the most entertaining fighters in the sport, male or female, and rarely has a dull moment in a fight, let alone a dull bout.
She was the easy choice as the 2019 Yahoo Sports women’s Fighter of the Year in boxing.
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