At this stage, many people head into a Katie Taylor title defence assuming that a win for the Irishwoman is all but a foregone conclusion.
While there have been one or two close calls during her pro career, they could hardly be blamed for harbouring such feelings. After all, the Bray native is incredibly tough to beat if she performs anywhere near her best, something that has been the case in the vast majority of her bouts since leaving the amateur ranks.
Taylor herself would never take any opponent for granted, including tomorrow's challenger in Firuza Sharipova.
The Kazakh fighter is somewhat of an unknown quantity, becoming the first female fighter in the professional ranks from the country back in 2016.
Eddie Hearn concerned by Katie Taylor challenger
Eddie Hearn is somewhat concerned by what Sharipova could have to offer.
Speaking ahead of the clash in Liverpool, Taylor's promoter said the attitude of the challenger's sizeable entourage has him a small bit worried about what she could bring to the table.
They’re very serious people. She comes with a big reputation, a lot of support, and they’ve been quite difficult to be honest with you. They’re not particularly happy about anything...
The worrying thing is they’re taking it very seriously. You see a lot of people turn up, ‘Oh, thank you so much for the opportunity.’
They’re like: ‘We have to get this right. We’re winning this fight and we can’t have anything get in the way of our preparation.’
That’s a bit worrying. They’re not just here to make up the numbers.
And there’s a lot unknown about her. Like, if you watch her, she can punch, she’s quite unorthodox, very tough... I don’t know...
She’s either just a solid fighter or really, really good and really dangerous. I hope it’s just the first one to be honest with you. Katie wants the second one!
But we just want to get through this fight and then, obviously, (Amanda) Serrano looms.
It’s just that you see so many banana skins – non-stop now – where people are losing, because they’re thinking [beyond the fight in front of them].
Katie’s not that kind of fighter, but it’ll certainly be a sigh of relief if her hand can get raised on Saturday and we can move forward to that Serrano fight.
It will be interesting to see how the fight develops, but Taylor is still the strong favourite.
Here's hoping she can keep her incredible run going as we head into 2022.
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