KATIE TAYLOR has brought eyes to women’s boxing—and boxing as a whole—that otherwise wouldn’t look twice at the sport. But even in the weird world of boxing, women’s boxing is a particularly odd sub-genre. While squash matches are bad in men’s boxing, Taylor’s opponent this weekend somehow defended her WBC lightweight title against an opponent who had gone 1-9 in her last ten fights. I suppose in that regard women’s boxing is just boxing but more so.
But then there is the standard of the actual boxing, which is generally considerably lower than in the men’s game. Holly Holm is one of the most decorated female boxers in history and yet her style of bouncing on her toes with her feet almost level and then jogging past opponents, pumping punches and kiai-ing would look like a mess to most of the top coaches in the men’s game. Similarly, Delfine Persoon, who fights Katie Taylor this weekend, fights in a very reckless and jumbled sort of style that would probably get a fighter starched very quickly at the top levels of men’s boxing.
But then that is what makes Taylor special: she has punch and craft. She has incredibly crisp hands, decent head movement, and can time a counter well. More than that, she has one of the best-left hooks you will see in the women’s game.
In that respect she could be a horrible match up for Persoon because Persoon is all about volume and aggression and when she throws the right hand (which she does dozens of times a round) that right hand lingers and Persoon will often end the combination there (not great form without some kind of defensive movement like a weave, sidestep, or a jab to “close the door”) or keep marching. The time that the right hand is out and Persoon isn’t in the usual bladed boxing position is when she is completely vulnerable to the left hook.
Another Persoon habit that seems like it could play into Taylor’s counter hitting style is her constant shifting into southpaw stance. Sometimes she does this with a neat shifting left hook to the body, other times she will just step through to southpaw mid-combination with little regard for her balance or defence. This works well against opponents who will try to cover up and weather the storm, but Taylor will likely be trying to score catch-and-pitch counters from the early going.
Two other looks to expect from Taylor that could throw a spanner in the works of Persoon’s game are body shots and nodders. Both of these are ideal for rattling an over aggressive opponent and making them slow down to a more normal pace. Body shots obviously take the wind out of a fighter, but nodders are a grey area of the game that you can readily see many good infighting counter punchers using. As the opponent steps in, you duck your head and step in to meet them. In most cases this lands you inside of their reach, smothering their offence and setting you up to either clinch or come back with counters. In the best case scenario, the top of your head meets their face. The nodder opens cuts effectively, but it also just really hurts. Oddly enough, Taylor’s last bout, against Rose Volante (which Taylor was winning handily) was actually ruled a TKO off a headbutt.
With all that being said, many are treating this as a coronation for Taylor—mopping up the last part of the lightweight title so she can be declared the undisputed world champion—but Persoon has at least looked game and unaffected by the shots she absorbs in her straight-forward, all out fighting style. Plus she’s pretty rangey for her weight and can actually jab while on her bike pretty well when she isn’t windmilling wildly. While the logical conclusion would be that a more active fighter offers a counter fighter more opportunities, this is proved wrong fairly often. Time and measure are the tools of the counter striker—flustering them and constantly closing the distance often throws off their judgement and has them holding back on the good counter opportunities and swinging wild at worse ones.
