Do you believe in the Boogeywoman?

On Aug. 22, 2020, Katie Taylor was forced to dig deep for a second time to outpoint determined foe Delfine Persoon over 10 rounds. The official scores were 98-93, 96-94 and 96-94, all in favor of Taylor, who retained the undisputed lightweight championship at Matchroom HQ in Essex, England.

In June 2019, Taylor added Persoon’s WBC strap and the vacant Ring championship to her IBF, WBA and WBO titles by winning 10-round majority decision at Madison Square Garden. The Irish star made history by becoming the sport’s first female undisputed lightweight champ, but it was a highly controversial decision and Persoon was crestfallen.

The rematch was a natural.

The second bout followed the same pattern as the first. Taylor attempted to fight at distance and Persoon did her best work up close. However, unlike the first fight, when she was continually smothered by the Belgian girl’s volume punching attacks, Taylor succeeded in maintaining safe distance for longer periods of time. There was considerably less controversy and Team Persoon did little in the way of protesting.

“I knew it was going to be a tough battle coming into this fight,” Taylor told Sky Sports afterwards. “It’s never going to be an easy battle against Delfine, she is relentless.

“I knew I would have to dig deep at some stages during the fight, but I thought I boxed a lot better than last time. I stuck to my boxing a lot more, even if I got drawn in a few times.

“You can’t relax in there at all against someone like Delfine, she going to come and come and come. Even though I’m hitting her clean shots she’s going to attack all the time. That’s why it’s such a tough fight against someone like her.”