Katie Taylor will make her return to the ring on February 24th at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre in Dublin. The opponent for the Olympic champion has yet to be confirmed but it is expected to be a world class fighter who will serve as suitable perparation for Taylor in advance of the European Championships in October of this year. The fight will be the Bray woman’s first since her win over Russian Sofya Ochigava in the final of the London Olympics.

"It's great to have a date to focus on now and it will be great to box at home as Olympic Champion," said Taylor. "I was humbled by all the people who came over to support me in London, it felt like the Irish fans took over the arena for my fights so it's great now that people will have a chance to see me on home soil taking on world class opposition.
"I boxed at the O2 in 2009 and it was a brilliant experience and the crowds reaction that night was amazing and really lifted me and it would be great to repeat that in the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in February."

Taylor aims to continue adding medals to her collection, and doesn’t expect the success and adulation of the summer to diminish her competitive hunger, “I'm still only 26 and I feel I have things to prove and things to achieve in the sport. I'm constantly learning in the gym and looking to improve. I've always set myself goals and I want to retain that Olympic title in Rio in 2016 and retain my European and World titles as well so I'm hungrier than ever to keep improving.”

Pete Taylor, father and trainer to Katie, sees this fight as the first step towards winning a second Olympic gold at the 2016 games in Rio De Janeiro, "Katie's incredibly driven and she's not happy to settle for everything she's won to date. She wants to keep on improving and to keep winning. Hopefully everything we are doing here will lead to the next Olympics in Rio and that's the long term goal but in the medium term it's about defending her European title next October and obviously the short term goal is this fight on February 24th.”