Katie Taylor has done it!
History was made in New York last night in front of a sold-out Madison Square Garden.
Just under three years since she made the decision to turn professional, Taylor has unified all four world lightweight titles to become the queen of her division.
Fans of the Bray native tuned in in the wee hours of the morning to see her face 34-year-old Belgian Delfine Persoon and attempt to add the WBC title to her IBF, WBA and WBO belts.
Taylor was well aware of the class of her opponent, who had only ever suffered one loss in her 44 fight career.
Although she went into the showdown as the favorite, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist had spoken during the week about her frustrations at people underestimating her strength.
Taylor made a blistering start and was more accurate than Persoon who threw more punches in the close encounter.
A bout that was too close for one judge to call, scoring it 95-95.
The Crowd seemed to think the Belgian had it, but the other two ringside judges didn’t agree – giving it to the Irish fighter on a 96-94 scorecard.
Taylor, ever the perfectionist, analysed her performance afterwards saying there were errors, but she felt she had done enough.
"I probably should have boxed more on the outside, it was a tight fight but I thought I did enough in the earlier rounds to shade it."
It seems even in victory though Taylor’s frustrations and demands for respect niggled at her.
She straight away offered Persoon a rematch.
Promoter Eddie Hearn said afterwards an anger was sparked in his fighter when she heard people felt the wrong call was made.
“She said to me 'If there’s any doubt that I didn’t win the fight we’ve got to do it again. She asked me, I told her that I had it a draw, and she turned around and said that we’ve got to do it again.”
There is no indication of when a rematch may take place.
