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Bernard Dunne clarifies the "only thing that matters" for Katie Taylor after her defeat last week

Bernard Dunne feels Katie Taylor's AIBA World Championship tournament was a success despite her s...
Newstalk
Newstalk

15.53 30 May 2016


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Bernard Dunne clarifies the &a...

Bernard Dunne clarifies the "only thing that matters" for Katie Taylor after her defeat last week

Newstalk
Newstalk

15.53 30 May 2016


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Bernard Dunne feels Katie Taylor's AIBA World Championship tournament was a success despite her semi-final defeat in Astana.

Taylor qualified for the Rio Olympics by reaching the semi-final but missed an opportunity to win her sixth world title after losing to Estelle Mossely. 

Dunne, who is just back from Sierra Leone with charity Plan Ireland and spoke to the Moncrieff Show about his experience there and what he learned, shared his perspective on the future for Taylor.

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"Ultimately that tournament was a success. She went out to qualify for the Olympic games, so goal achieved," he said.

"Now it's about setting down, it's about thinking what to do different, what she would add, what she would really change and just re-focusing. The only thing that matters is the Olympic Games, it's not about winning her sixth world title. It's about winning the Olympic gold medal again."  

And he feels that Taylor's success has led to an improvement in standards in women's boxing, which conversely means she faces tougher challengers.

 

 

Dunne also shared a touching insight into what he learned in Sierra Leone and recalled one anecdote that has stuck with him.

"One of the girls who went into one of the schools made a great statement to me and it stuck with me: 'You educate a woman, you educate a nation'. And I just thought 'you're 14 years of age and you're saying something like that'. It was powerful and she wanted to go to school, she wanted to finish her exams. That's another problem. If you got pregnant at a young age, you had to leave school. When you left school and come back, you were never allowed to sit your final exams out there. Women have to be encouraged to be whatever they want to be."    

 


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