Katie Taylor shared a touching embrace with her father Pete after weighing-in for her massive fight with Karen Elizabeth Carabajal.
'The Bray Bomber' will headline Saturday night's card when she steps into the ring to face the undefeated Argentinian in the main event of the evening. Tomorrow's fight at the Wembley Arena will be Taylor's first bout since she defeated Amanda Serrano in an all-time classic at Madison Square Garden earlier this year.
On Friday afternoon, Taylor weighed-in at 134.6 lbs, while her opponent Carabajal weighed in at 134.2 lbs. Both women were comfortably under the weight limit of 135 lbs. After the weigh-in, cameras were on hand to capture the lovely image of Katie and her father embracing. Both father and daughter were smiling ear-to-ear when they bumped into each other backstage.
READ MORE: Katie Taylor v Karen Elizabeth Carabajal fight time, TV and stream information, venue and more
Pete is part of Gary Cully's coaching team. Cully, who is eyeing up a World Title fight in 2023, will take on France's Jaouad Belmehdi on the undercard tomorrow evening.
Pete Taylor played a major role in shaping the early stages of Katie's career. Throughout her amateur career, Pete was by his daughter's side as Katie dominated the amateur game and eventually took home the gold medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Shortly before the Rio Olympics in 2016, the pair went their separate ways, with the breakdown in the marriage of Pete and Katie's mother Bridget playing a role in the ending of their professional relationship. Appearing on RTE's The Late Late Show some time after the split, Katie spoke about how difficult it was to part ways with her father.
"I would describe that whole year as 'turmoil', there was a lot of turmoil within our family relationships and it is no secret at this stage that myself and my dad parted ways throughout that year and my whole training regime was turned upside down.
"I was going from club to club just trying to get spars here and there. I was sleeping in the car in between sessions and I wasn't eating properly.
"But I still genuinely believed I was going to win gold and I believed that was my destiny.
"When things don't pan out the way you hoped and dreamed, you can't underestimate how heart-breaking that is. As an athlete with my mentality, winning is everything and that was easily the lowest point of my career."
In her documentary 'Katie', the Bray native spoke about no longer having her father in her corner: "The first time I had to go training without him, I was driving in by myself and the tears were rolling down my face.
"I just felt like every time I was stepping into the ring without my dad at that time, I was missing an arm."
Meanwhile, Pete previously told the Paddy Holohan No Shame podcast: "She (Katie) has good morals. She said 'if you’ve split up with my mother, then I don’t want you in my corner.'
"She knew what the outcome would be. She knew that she’d be missing me in the corner but she still had the morals to go ahead and do that. You’ve got to respect that. She was reared good.
The pair were pictured for the first time together three years after their initial spilt in 2019. And with the lovely images captured today, the two appear to be on much better terms.
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