Jessica McCaskill Gets Her Wish to Face Katie Taylor

Published by Shawn C.

Christmas comes a little early this year for hard-punching Warriors Boxing
lightweight Jessica ‘CasKILLA’ McCaskill.

All year, she and manager/trainer Rick Ramos have been expressing their
wish, via social media, to face Irish gold medalist turned professional
world champion Katie Taylor.

On Wednesday, December 13, they will get their wish, as Chicago-based
McCaskill (5-1, 3 KOs) will challenge Taylor (7-0, 4 KOs) for her WBA
Lightweight Championship at York Hall in London, England, and live before a
massive audience on Sky Sports.

“I’m relieved. I’ve been working toward this fight for a long time,” said
McCaskill, rated #2 in the world at 135 lbs and #1 in the United States in
women’s boxing. “We have been training for this fight since my last fight
because we knew it was coming and we’ve definitely bumped up the intensity.”

Before turning professional a year ago, the popular Taylor, from Bray, won
lightweight gold at the 2012 London Olympics, as well as an impressive
assortment of world and European amateur championships. Known as the Irish
athlete of her entire generation, Taylor is regarded as a superstar in the
UK because of her aggressive and crowd-pleasing style.

“I’ve never watched a full fight of hers,” professed McCaskill. “I’ve seen
some highlights. I see mistakes she makes, but it’s not so much what I see
in her. It’s what I see in all her opponents. They’ve all been scared of
her. I am not. You won’t see any fear in me. Everybody else was terrified
to engage her. They just showed up. I’ll be fighting to the last bell.”

Much of the credit for landing the fight must go to Ramos, who doggedly
pursued Taylor and her promoter, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, on social
media.

“I felt like offended about comments Katie and Eddie made about how no one
wants to fight her,” explained Ramos. “I remember thinking, ‘well, NO ONE
called Jessica. We would love to fight Katie!’ That kind of started
everything. Eddie Hearn finally did contact me via Instagram and things
started getting real. I was happy that my social-media tactic worked!”

McCaskill, who also works full-time in Regulatory and Reporting at R.J.
O’Brien & Associates investment bank in Chicago, says she’s not intimidated
about stepping into Taylor’s home field for this fight. In fact, she’s
expecting a number of her fans to be there as well.

“It’s funny because of my job and my previous investment banking job, I
have a lot of contacts and friends over there who are excited to show up
for me. My company I work for has a branch that is three miles from the
venue. I’ll be expecting a lot of fans there for me as well that night. It
would be incredible to headline over there and to break her undefeated
record and get my first world title in one night in front of them. I can’t
wait!”