AT THIS stage everybody in Ireland with even the vaguest interest in sport must have seen some of Olympic champion Katie Taylor’s epic fights in London ExCel Arena. Everybody except the lady herself who makes a habit of never watching herself box. “Once it is over, it’s over,” she said.
Last night she turned up at the launch of RTÉ veteran commentator Jimmy Magee’s memoir Memory Man. Though she has never heard Magee’s breathless commentaries on any of her fights, she regards it as a “privilege” that he is ringside. “He adds something special to any occasion he attends,” she said, adding that Magee had shown an interest in her career when women’s boxing was largely unknown in Ireland. “He’s like my dad, he can’t wait for me to retire,” she said.
It was among Taylor’s few public engagement since the homecomings in Bray and Dublin. Since then she has acquired a deep tan following a 12-day family holiday in Alicante.
Her long-awaited appearance on the Late Late Show, the first of the new season, takes place tonight.
Magee and Taylor are something of a mutual appreciation society. Launching his book, Taylor described the commentator as “different class”, referencing Magee’s famous description of Diego Maradona.
Magee has said Taylor “must be way up there” in his long-list of favourite sports people. Now 77, he intends to commentate at the next Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro “if I’m alive” and in the book has even set out the music to be played at his funeral if he isn’t.
Among those who attended last night’s launch in the Aviva Stadium were boxers Bernard Dunne, Kenny Egan and former athlete Senator Eamonn Coghlan.
