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Nick Parkinson
Caroline Dubois blames Katie Taylor for delaying her progress in fighting for a women’s world lightweight title.
The English boxer believes she should be fighting for a full world title this Saturday, but instead she challenges Maira Moneo for her secondary WBC interim world lightweight title at Oakwell Stadium in Barnsley, England.
Two-weight undisputed champion Taylor, 38, based in Connecticut but from Bray in Ireland, holds the WBC and WBA world lightweight titles but has not defended them since October 2022. Taylor’s next fight is against New York-based Puerto Rican Amanda Serrano in a rematch on Nov. 15, when Taylor will defend her four super lightweight titles.
“Katie hasn’t fought for the belts in over a year, she should have been ordered to vacate the belts or fight her mandatory challenger, but that’s boxing politics,” Dubois told ESPN.
“It’s frustrating and the same thing is happening to Skye Nicholson down at featherweight with Amanda Serrano [the WBA and WBO featherweight champion].”
Moneo (14-1, 3 KO), 31, from Montevideo in Uruguay, has only been beaten by disqualification due to a clash of heads versus Yanina del Carmen Lescano in 2020.
“My opponent has earned it too, after who she has beat and she’s never been beat only disqualified from a fight she was winning. I think she’s world level but she just doesn’t have a world title,” Dubois told ESPN.
“Once I get through this fight, beat this woman, all of the fights are going to be big level fights. I want to fight the other two world lightweight champions, Rhiannon Dixon [WBO] and Beatriz Ferreira [IBF] as well as Alycia Baumgardner [the undisputed junior lightweight champion] who has been talking about coming up in weight too.
“This is the best person for me to prepare for those fights, it will be great experience for me.”
Dubois, the sister of IBF world heavyweight champion Daniel who makes a first defence versus Anthony Joshua on Sep. 21, hopes Taylor can be persuaded to face her next year following her rematch with Serrano.
“Once I win this fight I will be her mandatory defence and she will either have to defend against me, or vacate the title,” Dubois told ESPN.
“Katie has been the biggest fish in the sea for so long and it would be a great opportunity to fight her, I can’t think of a better fighter to face. I know I could beat her, and it would be an honour to step in the ring with her after everything she has done the sport.
“I grew up watching Katie Taylor and Natasha Jonas fighting at the 2012 Olympics, and that’s what started me dreaming about becoming a boxer. I watched Katie when ever I could. I knew what time her bouts were, who she was fighting. It was a moment when dreams come true when I fought at the Olympics [in Tokyo three years ago], and it would be another one to actually share the ring with Katie.”
Source: www.espn.com