READ MORE: Check out our free tips for all the big fights in 2022
Katie Taylor v Karen Carabajal Female Boxing Betting Offer, Tips & Predictions
Undisputed lightweight female champion Katie Taylor returns to the ring for the second time in 2022 when she takes on Karen Elizabeth Carabajal.
This will not be Taylor’s toughest fight in recent bouts, but she will be pushed hard before retaining her titles and extending her professional record to 22-0.
Taylor, who won Gold at the 2012 London Olympics, turned professional in 2016 after losing in the quarter-finals at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
She entered the ring as a professional fighter for the first time on November 26, 2016 when she took on Poland’s Katrina Kopinska in a six-round bout at The SSE Arena Wembley in London. Taylor didn’t need all six rounds as she stopped Kopinska in the third.
Taylor had three more bouts before she got to fight for her first professional title. She won the vacant WBA female Inter-Continental lightweight title with a seventh-round TKO over Germany’s Nina Meinke.
Everyone could see that Taylor was world-class and it wouldn’t be long until she was world champion. That opportunity came in October 2017 when she took on Anahi Sanchez for the vacant WBA female lightweight title. She defeated the Argentinian by unanimous decision to take the title, the world was her oyster now.
Taylor was not content with just one belt, she wanted them all. She retained her WBA title and secured the IBF belt with a points decision victory over another Argentine fighter in Victoria Bustos.
She added a third world title to her collection on March 15, 2019, when she stopped Brazilian Rose Volante in the ninth round in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to claim the WBO lightweight belt to set up a unification bout against Delfine Persoon.
Persoon came into this bout as the WBC champion, she had held the title for five years after winning it in 2014 when she beat Erica Farias on points. The bout with Taylor was a war and the Irishwoman got a majority decision verdict to hold all the belts as the WBA, WBO, IBF, WBC and The Ring lightweight champion of the world.
After becoming a two-weight world champion by defeating Christina Linardatou for the WBO junior welterweight title, Taylor then faced Persoon again.
Persoon thought she won the first fight, but there was no doubt in the second as Taylor won a unanimous decision to keep her belts.
Since that second win over Persoon, Taylor has had five more fights and has taken the decisions with unanimous points wins against Miriam Gutierrez, Natasha Jonas, Jennifer Han, Firuza Sharipova and Amanda Serrano.
The Irish fighter got her arm raised with a split-decision victory over Serrano. Carabajal will not cause Taylor the same problems that Serrano did, but she will give it her all.
Carabajal is also undefeated as a professional, but without sounding too disrespectful, she is not in Taylor’s league.
The Argentina fighter is not known for her explosive power. She has won two fights by knockout, so to win this fight she will have to outthink and be smarter than Taylor – and I cannot see that happening.
With women only fighting two-minute rounds, it is quite difficult to score a knockout win. It takes time to get into a rhythm and the bell normally sounds before that happens.
Back Taylor to keep all her belts and take this by decision after 10 two-minute rounds.
