Katie Taylor Opponent Will Be One Of Her Mandatory Challengers According To Promoter Hearn

Ireland’s Katie Taylor (21-0, 6 KOs) will return to the ring on October 29 at the 10,000-capacity Wembley Arena in London, England. Female Boxing\’s P4P #1 will defend her undisputed Lightweight championship in the headline of a Matchroom Boxing/DAZN UK card.

The show will lead into Golden Boy\’s lightweight clash between Joseph Diaz Jr and William Zepeda in San Diego later that night on a big day for DAZN\’s boxing offering.

Eddie Hearn revealed yesterday to Ariel Helwani in an interview conducted on \’MMAFightingOnSBN\’ that Taylor would face one of her mandatory challengers on that date. Taylor holds all four of the 135-pound belts meaning it could be any of four challengers. An announcement is expected on Friday.

The #1 ranked contender with the WBC is Russian southpaw Sofya Ochigava (6-0, 2 KOs). Ochigava famously lost to Katie Taylor in the final of the 2012 London Olympics. Ochigava also has an amateur win over Taylor which was avenged three times.

France\’s Estelle Yoka-Mossely (10-0, 1 KO) is the IBF\’s highest-ranked challenger at a 135-pounds. Mossely also holds the IBO Belt and is arguably the #2 active lightweight. Mossely also boxed Taylor in the amateurs four times. After losing the first three, she won the fourth in 2016 and went on to win the Olympics. A fight between Katie Taylor and Estelle Mossely would be a battle of successive Olympic champions.

Uruguay\’s Maira Moneo (10-1, 2 KOs) would be mandatory with the WBA. Moneo\’s sole defeat comes to Yanina del Carmen Lescano who was beaten by Mossely last time out. She doesn\’t have a notable win and would be the softest option of the three presented so far. Taylor has faced two WBA mandatories in the last two years.

The WBO has no public female rankings.

By Darshan Desai

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