A meet and greet with the champ: Discovering why Katie Taylor is so admired

Who are Katie Taylor's fans?

That was the question I asked myself as I drove to Dundrum Town Centre on Monday where Taylor would be holding a scheduled meet and greet with her fans at a JD Sports store. 'Who are these people?' I thought. Are they male or are they female? Are they young or are they old? Are they boxers or are they simply boxing fans? These were the type of questions I had floating around my mind after I saw the results of the 2017 Teneo Sports’ Sponsorship Index last month, which revealed that Taylor was the most admired sports star in Ireland, stripping UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor of yet another title that he used to own. McGregor's popularity halved from 16% to 8% last year according to the Index, for reasons I can imagine have almost nothing to do with sport, and yet, if McGregor were to fight in Ireland, Croke Park would almost certainly be his destination. He's hinted as much. https://twitter.com/TheNotoriousMMA/status/921529941325418497 Taylor, however, has been billed for months to have a spring homecoming at the 3 Arena, a venue with an estimated capacity ranging between 9,000 - 13,000. I wondered, how could Taylor be the most admired athlete in the country, yet, fight at a venue considerably smaller than a man she is nearly three times more admired than in that same country? Go figure. It turns out that admiration and selling tickets do not share a mutual relationship. Mike Tyson chewed part of Evander Holyfield's ear off in 1997 and it served to only further solidify his status as the biggest name in boxing. Needless to say, Katie Taylor is not Mike Tyson. However, when I spoke to Taylor's promoter Eddie Hearn in Belfast at the end of last year, the Matchroom chief said that he would be targeting a homecoming for the WBA lightweight champion sometime in the spring of 2018. A number of reports last week suggested a date of April 14 at the 3 Arena had been confirmed for a Taylor world title fight, however, a report by Gavan Casey on Monday suggested that Taylor could now be set to fight on the undercard of Gary 'Spike' O'Sullivan's purported bout with Danny Jacobs in New York, thus, ruling out any chance of Taylor fighting in Dublin. Casey reported 'that the hypothetical homecoming in the spring would likely have proven the only opportunity for Irish fans to experience Taylor fighting on home soil: such is her star potential, America has always been earmarked as the future base of operations, particularly since promoter Hearn opened an office there last autumn'. And with that news, the meet and greet in Dundrum could prove to be a rare opportunity for fans to get a glimpse of the champion on home soil. When I eventually arrived in Dundrum, I headed straight for the information desk to ask where the JD Sports store was located inside the centre. 'To your right and straight down the end, you can't miss it,' the man behind the desk told me. He wasn't lying either. The store proved to be an easy find given that there was a queue of 150 people standing in the middle of the aisle. I walked to the top of the queue and stood outside the front of the store to see how all of this was going to unfold. Before too long a man dressed head-to-toe in dark green adidas apparel walked out of the store with a microphone in his hand as he tried to hype up the crowd. A security guard had informed me that you had to have a wristband to meet Taylor, and that those with wristbands were given priority to see her first, but that ultimately, she wouldn't turn any of her fans away. How sound. 'How do you get a wristband?' I asked. 'You had to come and collect your band from the store on the Saturday before the meet and greet', the security guard replied. Smart business. However, I managed to circumvent this process by making my way past the DJ and up the stairs where a short Q&A would be held before Taylor would sign autographs and take pictures. I counted seven sharpie pens on the desk, this wasn't JD's first rodeo. They were well prepared for what was about to happen. Upstairs, there was another roped off area where about 50 fans stood waiting for the champion to arrive. At this point, the hype man returned to the fold, working the crowd up again and using the biggest false threat in entertainment - 'if you don't make more noise 'x' won't come out'. 'Go on, I dare her' I thought to myself. Humour me. Imagine the most admired athlete in Ireland failing to show her face because her fans didn't make enough noise. Please. But, of course, after the fans were worked up a little more, Taylor was called out from the backroom. 'Making her way to the stage, the WBA... FEMALE LIGHTWEIGHT CHAMPION..... KATIE... TAYLOR'. This was the part that intrigued me. After attending a number of different press conferences over the last few years, some fighters can look more unsettled making their way to speak to the public than they can be walking towards a ring or a cage. Some fighters can show more trepidation about being exposed for something they've said than they can about lying unconscious in an arena in nothing more than their shorts and boots. But here came Taylor, emerging around the corner past a stand of trainers, wearing that smile that you've seen on television time and time again. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd_MMG7g843/?hl=en&taken-by=jdsportsie Here was the most admired athlete in Ireland, sitting down in a sports store in Dundrum, greeted by a chorus of cheers and applause. The hype man had returned, oddly, with a pair of glasses this time, and a short Q&A began. For three-and-a-half minutes it went like this; Jessica McCaskill was a great fighter. Hopefully I can fight in Ireland soon. I wouldn't be where I am without the support of the Irish public. I want to be the best of all time. JD have been amazing sponsors. The interview hit similar notes to the DJ downstairs, Taylor was, and is, as in-sync with these type of interviews as the DJ was with his decks. But this wasn't a press conference, every answer was met with raucous applause from her fans. It really didn't matter what the answers were, or how cliché and generic they may have seemed, those in attendance just wanted a glimpse of the champion. A smile. A handshake. A picture. A hug. An embrace. This was far more interesting to me than just about any Taylor interview I've ever read or heard. Discovering, in person, why people gravitate towards this woman. And so the meet and greet began. First, a middle aged woman came beaming towards her closing the distance faster than McCaskill ever could in London. Then a small family with kids came next. Then some teenage boys. Then a couple. Then some more kids. Then two elderly women. It was a sea of different demographics crashing towards her, one after another. But, Taylor, with a level of class and grace, greeted each person with a smile and a conversation. The questions were inaudible from where I was standing but you could see that there was a level of engagement from Taylor. None of her fights have exceeded 20 minutes, yet, but here in Dundrum, she would stand interacting with fans for two hours, showing no sign of weariness or social fatigue. One mother in particular greeted her like she was a member of their own, ditching any sort of pleasantries and embracing Taylor with a hug before greeting her mother Bridget with the same affection. This woman's daughter, decked out in 'KT' branded clothing, stood in awe. This was a recurring theme with the kids present. They approached Taylor like they were walking on the moon and not on some floor of a sports store in Dublin. They say to children that you should never meet your heroes, that there's a potential that they can be less kind in person, but these kids were floating somewhere between Dundrum and Cloud 9. Interestingly, the female children in particular, were for the most part carrying boxing gloves. A few adults had some gloves and some kit that they had wanted signed, but a significant number of young girls were carrying gloves. This was maybe the most telling part of the evening and reminded me of a conversation I had with Dublin Camogie player Aisling Maher last year ahead of the inaugural Camogie All-Stars tour to Madrid. I had asked Maher about the year she had had with Dublin, the fact that she had been nominated as Dublin's first All-Star in 10 years, and who some of her influences were growing up in the capital. She named some players at her club, Eimear Brannigan, Brian O'Driscoll and Katie Taylor. 'Why Taylor?' I asked. 'She was huge. She was the biggest female sports star in the country'. And maybe this is the beauty of Taylor in that it's not so much what she says but rather who she inspires. Watching young girl after young girl come up to her with a pair of boxing gloves speaks much louder than her words ever could, particularly at a time in Ireland where up to one-third of children cannot catch a ball with two hands, and barely one-quarter of girls can throw overhand. Taylor will probably never sell out a fight in Croke Park in Drumcondra, but in Dundrum, and in Madrid, the impact she's had is telling. She inspires people, not the circus.