Taylor vs Carabajal official for Oct. 29 at Wembley
Jordan Gill faces Kiko Martinez in the co-feature
Katie Taylor has a dance partner and a supporting cast for her previously revealed October 29th return at Wembley, as she’s officially set to defend her undisputed lightweight title against Karen Elizabeth Carabajal.
Carabajal (19-0, 2 KO), who’s promoted by Marcos Maidana, has fought the entirety of her nine-year career in her native Argentina and normally competes at super featherweight. A significant chunk of her wins have come against opponents with awful records, sometimes multiple times. She fought Lorena Noemi Gonzalez (0-3 going in) twice, Natalia Vanesa del Valle Aguirre (7-7-3 with a six-fight losing streak going in) twice in a row, and Cinti Gisela Castillo (7-0 going in, 10-8 in final meeting) three times in the span of five fights.
So, yeah, don’t expect an upset.
“It’s hard to believe it’s been almost six years since I made by pro debut there so it’s great to go back now and headline,” said Taylor. “It’s been an amazing journey so far but there are still lots of great fights out there for me and I’m excited about what’s still to come.”
“I was very happy when I received the offer to challenge Katie,” said Carabajal. “The hard work has paid off. I’m not thinking for a second about giving Katie a win. All the belts with come back to Argentina with me!”
An interesting co-feature pits Jordan Gill (27-1-1, 8 KO) against Kiko Martinez (43-11-2, 30 KO) in what the press release calls an IBF eliminator. I’m guessing it’s not a final one, since Gill’s 7th and Martinez is 3rd in the rankings. The Spaniard, who smashed Kid Galahad for the title in one of last year’s wilder upsets, lost the belt to Josh Warrington in March but managed to break his jaw in the process. Speaking of wild results, Gill was last seen getting DDT’d and beaten half to death by Karim Guerfi before turning things around with an insane one-punch finish.
Martinez has still got something left in the tank and Gill needs another good win before he can talk about being a contender, so no complaints here.
Also in store are Caiomhin Agyarko (12-0, 7 KO) against Peter Dobson (14-0, 8 KO) and Gary Cully (14-0, 8 KO) vs TBA, plus familiar faces like Johnny Fisher (6-0, 5 KO) and John Hedges (6-0, 2 KO).