The "Bray Bomber" slips under the ropes and back into the ring at Manchester Arena on November 2nd, where Katie Taylor will attempt to become a two-weight world champions when she meets Greek fighter Christina Linardatou for the WBO Super-Lightweight title.
Taylor, the undisputed lightweight champion, currently holds the WBC, IBF, WBO and WBA titles at 135lb and will seek to add to her legend in adding this title on a card that features local boxer Anthony Crolla defend with rising light-heavyweight Joshua Buatsi, Felix Cash and Gamai Yafai also in action.
With a career professional record of 14 wins from 14 fights, six of them by knockout, Taylor’s most recent fight was a bloody affair at Madison Square Gardens back in June when she defeated Belgium’s Delfine Persoon on the undercard of the shock Ruiz-Joshua bout.
As it happens, Linardatou’s sole defeat in a 13-fight professional career came at the hands of Persoon back in 2016 when she was outpointed by the Belgian.
Linardatou puts her Super-Lightweight title on the line against Taylor, who is moving up in weight in her bid to become a two-weight champion.
“It’s a new challenge at a new weight and something I’m really excited about. I still feel like I have so much left to achieve in the sport and becoming a two-weight world champion is one of those goals,” said Taylor of her upcoming bill-topping bout.
Just the ticket
No sell-out signs just yet. Standard tickets available for the eight-card fight night at the city centre Manchester Arena range in price from £68 up to £283. Doors into the Manchester Arena open at 5pm.
Getting there
With Manchester City in action against Southampton in the English Premier League on the same day, flight availability from Dublin to Manchester is rather limited at this stage.
Aer Lingus, however, still has availability for an early-afternoon departure (after the early morning football support) for €133.99 rising to €181.99 for a late-afternoon departure.
For the return flight, Ryanair still has availability for a late-afternoon return on Sunday for €74.99 or an evening flight back for €161.99. The most straightforward way of getting from Manchester Airport into the city centre is by taxi (price from airport to city will average £20).
There is also an airport shuttle bus into the city (price range of £5-9 for a single ticket), while the train link to Manchester Piccadilly runs every 10 minutes (single ticket priced at £5).
Staying there
One of the attractions of Manchester is that it has a wide range of accommodation. On the hotel front, there remains a large number of options available on November 2nd – examples include: Jury’s Inn (€155), Crowne Plaza (€149), Britannia Hotel (€126) and Holiday Inn Express (€124) – while Air Bnb in private accommodation convenient to the fight venue can be accessed from €60.
