20 years on: Sadie Duffy on the night Katie Taylor broke the mould

Halloween night 2001 was a watershed moment for Irish sport.

Upon the canvas of the National Stadium in Dublin, two young boxers touched leather for a historic fight.

Cameras flashed to capture the action inside the greying confines of the home of Irish amateur boxing. For the first time ever, the old place was hosting a bout between two female boxers. The South Circular Road reeks of history; on that night, those inside saw the future.

In Ireland’s first officially sanctioned women’s bout, on October 31, 2001, 15-year-old Katie Taylor from Bray, County Wicklow, defeated Alanna Audley of Belfast 23-12 on points after three one-and-a-half-minute rounds. 

At the close of business in the historic contest, Taylor’s hand was held high by the referee – Buncrana’s Sadie Duffy.

“It was history in the making,” Duffy says.

Duffy has been a boxing referee since 1997 and was selected to officiate on that breakthrough night in 2001, making it an all-female cast.

“There were a few hurdles to overcome, like the major one was acceptance,” Duffy says.

“Actually having women’s boxing accepted was a big thing. Some people that you thought would have been alright about it were the very people against it at the time.

“It was a huge stage for the girls. They were only young girls at the time. It was massive, first of all, because they were there to be criticised. They both stuck it out as boxers, fair play to them.”

Audley had some time out of the sport, but got back into the ring again. She won an Ulster Elite crown and was a Commonwealth Games bronze medalist.

Taylor’s star shot to the very top. In August 2012 she defeated Russia’s Sofya Ochigava 10-8 at an electric ExCel Arena in London to win an Olympic Gold medal. 

The Bray woman is a two-weight world champion and the current undisputed lightweight champion of the world. 

“It seems like a lifetime ago now,” Taylor recalled in an interview with Neil Loughran in the Irish News.

“I’d been at the stadium a good few times before; we would’ve went to most competitions, even youth competitions or whatever. My dad would’ve even taken me out of school sometimes just to go and watch the fights at the stadium.

“I was quite aware it was a history-making fight because of the attention it was getting in the media beforehand and afterwards. I remember being quite nervous on the day because I realised how huge it actually was.

“I had been boxing since I was 10 years of age not getting any fights, training with all the guys for years and seeing them going away to competition after competition where I had no competition to go to because there was no female boxing at the time.

“So it was huge for me to get that first official fight, and to do it in the National Stadium as well was amazing. I’d been going there since I was a child, watching all these amazing fights, watching the seniors every year, and suddenly there I was...”

It was largely thanks to Taylor’s earth-shattering exploits that women’s boxing even took its place on the Olympic timetable.

“She was always a stand out and has broken a lot of new ground,” says Duffy, who also refereed Taylor when she defeated Julia Tsyplakova from Ukraine at the National Stadium in 2010.

“Katie’s record speaks for itself. I remember doing her first fight. It was an entertaining contest. Katie won it deservedly. She was a star even then. She’s moved on leaps and bounds.

“I was at most of the Championships that Katie has been at since then.

“Katie has been excellent. She’s a great role model and all those accolades that she has are richly deserved. She’s a model athlete, so professional in everything that she does. She ticks all the boxes.”

Duffy herself has played a big role in the sport and has taken charge of some of the country’s most high-profile bouts, including the 2011 Irish light-heavyweight final that saw Joe Ward defeat Kenny Egan on a night when Neilstown man Egan was aiming for an eleventh-successive title.

Alongside Mercedes Taaffe and Fiona Hennigan, Duffy was involved in recruiting boxers for that 2001 fight card at the National Stadium.

The Illies Golden Gloves woman served as secretary of the European Women’s Commission, but resigned from that role after the AIBA ruled that officers could no longer hold a position on the Commission and also act as a referee/judge.

She says: “We had regular meetings to coincide with major Championships. We met with different people from world boxing and it was all about developing womens’ boxing.”

In the late 90s, there were many at ringside who raised their eye when Duffy stepped between the ropes.

“I just got on with it,” she says.

“I adopted the approach of two choices: Take it or leave it.”

Duffy, like Taylor, has been a trailblazer for women’s boxing.

At the 2017 Irish Elite finals, she was honoured by the IABA for her services to boxing.