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French mandatory challenger Flora Pili steps into the spotlight against Katie Taylor at Croke Park, arriving as an unheralded but ranked contender in the depleted light-welterweight division. A 29-year-old secretary and mother from Moselle, Pili brings amateur pedigree, physical strength, and a tidy straight right hand to her shot at undisputed gold.
EVERY BIT THE Al 'Bleu' Lewis to Katie Taylor's Muhammad Ali, Saturday's challenger arrives from France as an unknown entity to anyone without their finger on the pulse of boxing.
Flora Pili is, for starters, a worthy challenger, at least as far as rankings are concerned. The 29-year-old hasn't been plucked from obscurity: she's the mandatory challenger for Taylor's IBF world title, and she ranked among the highest available contenders to fight for the vacant WBC strap, both of which are among the belts that contribute to the undisputed title up for grabs at Croke Park.
That Pili could be so highly ranked without many notable victories, with her best being a split decision on the road in Italy against subsequent world-title challenger Silvia Bortot, is not her fault, but the result of a dearth of remaining talent at 140 pounds (light-welterweight). England's Chantelle Cameron and American Mikaela Mayer, who faced each other in a thriller a couple of weekends ago, are among the world-level fighters who have recently moved up to 147 pounds, which is a bridge too far at this final career juncture for Taylor, who walks around barely at the welterweight limit even when she's off duty.
Pili, who hails from France's north-east department of Moselle, near the Luxembourg border, falls into the best-of-the-rest bracket, but she has worked her way to the top of the queue. She works, too, as a secretary in the HR department of the town hall in her hometown, Saint-Avold, which should not be used as a stick with which to beat her boxing ability, or indeed the women's game.
Many female boxing detractors, including in the Irish media, wrote off full-time policewoman Delfine Persoon before her first encounter with Taylor at Madison Square Garden in 2019. Even most world-ranked male boxers, whose purses would be significantly larger than those Pili has earned throughout her career so far, require day jobs. Katie Taylor is one of the few in the women's game for whom boxing is, and always has been, the job.
Pili's hardly a novice, either: she began boxing 17 years ago, aged 12, when she was taken to the gym by her father. She won a national Youth title just under six years later, and eventually became a French Senior champion at light-welterweight in 2019.
However, while she represented France at various age grades and competitions from the age of 14 onwards, she never featured in a major international tournament, such as European Championships, World Championships, or the Olympics, in the adult ranks. Among the most eye-catching of Pili's amateur results, at least of those officially recorded on BoxRec, are three defeats at an international round-robin tournament at Dublin's National Stadium in 2017, when she was just 19: two of them to Italy's subsequent amateur world champion, Irma Testa, and one to Kellie Harrington, who beat her by a unanimous decision.
A year earlier, she had also been beaten in her national final by Estelle Mossely, who that summer went on to succeed Katie Taylor as Olympic lightweight champion in Rio de Janeiro. Pili's best attributes are arguably better suited to the pro game, and she turned over in 2019, winning her first three bouts against journeywomen before taking a two-year hiatus as she welcomed her daughter, whose name she has kept private throughout her career.
A naturally larger woman than Taylor, who holds the belts at 140 pounds but is probably more of a 135-pounder in reality, Pili has impressive upper-body strength, often notable in the clinch. Solid and compact, she possesses a tidy straight right hand, particularly when she throws it as an individual shot and gets her head off the line to avoid being countered. She's more easily hittable when she throws combinations, during which her head becomes more static.
Andy Lee noted during Wednesday's open workouts that the Frenchwoman is slightly front-foot-heavy, meaning she can occasionally fall in with her shots and leave herself vulnerable. Limerick's former middleweight world champion Lee, who will corner welterweight contender Paddy Donovan against Tyrone McKenna at Croke Park, also pointed out that Pili's footwork is far less fluid when she moves from left to right, her feet coming together as she shadow-boxed uninterrupted for an impressive six minutes, equivalent to three female rounds, before receiving warm applause from dozens of Irish fans at The Helix
Katie Taylor Flora Pili Croke Park IBF World Title Light-Welterweight
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