The Boxing History Blog

 Katie Taylor  Not many boxers, if any, get to leave boxing on their own terms the way Katie Taylor did in front of 83,000 fans at Dublin’s Croke Park, when she outpointed France's Flora Pili 98-91, and two cards of 100-90 to win the vacant WBC lightweight title and retire as a three-time undisputed champion. It was an emotional and historic night, a far cry from her ten-year-old self, who had to dress up as a boy to compete in a boxing match. Born on 2nd July 1986 to parents Peter and Bridget, Katie was the youngest of siblings Sarah, Lee and Peter. They grew up in a tight-knit family in a small house in the working-class area of Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland. The community at the time faced socioeconomic challenges which included a heroin epidemic during the late 1980s and 1990s. Despite this, her parents encouraged their children to get heavily involved in sports, which sheltered them from trouble and established a deep love for athletics. Taylor excelled in a wide ran...

Tony Bellew was enjoying his honeymoon in Mykonos after marrying the mother of his three children, Rachael Roberts, when he watched on a phone in a bar, Oleksandr Usyk claim the undisputed cruiserweight title with a unanimous decision over Murat Gassiev in Moscow. In his broken English, the new champion from Ukraine called out the only challenger left to him before his inevitable move up into the heavyweight division; Tony Bellew.  The thirty-four-year-old Bellew, who had won the British, Commonwealth and WBC silver light-heavyweight titles and the cruiserweight WBO International and European belts after his failed WBC light-heavyweight title challenge to the hard-punching Adonis Stevenson, also captured the WBC cruiserweight title in front of his home city fans at Goodison Park stadium, the home of his beloved Everton FC. His back-to-back victories over David Haye at heavyweight cemented his legacy in the sport and secured him and his family financially. The WBC granted Bellew Cha...