Mira Potkonen beats Katie Taylor at the quarter-final stage of Rio 2016 to end the Ireland native’s hopes of back-to-back lightweight golds.
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“The people of Wicklow are very proud of her achievements”.
Taylor, the defending champion having taken gold in London 2012, took the opening round after displaying superior foot-work, but her Finnish opponent worked out her movement in the second and earned the approval of the judges thereafter.
Despite two damaging defeats in April and May, Ireland coach Eddie Bolger insists that Taylor is as much of a threat now as she’s ever been.
A change in her corner, with father Pete stepping away from the setup, added another unknown to the mix.
“I’m not anxious because the performances weren’t bad and the decisions were bad, but I don’t want to criticise too much”, he said.
She’s looking forward to it. She’s not carrying any baggage from what happened and class is permanent, as they say.
“She’s not any less of a fighter for those decisions”. She reflects on a hard year in the lead-up to this year’s games. Clearly won the third round and the judge went against her. It’s hard to call the fight, I’ll have to look back at it.
“I should be beating those girls”.
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“Nobody can convince me that this fight Katie lost; then I have no experience and I don’t know boxing”.
