BRIAN Peters thought he was done with boxing when Katie Taylor came along.
Since Wayne McCullagh had headlined the first show he’d run in 1993, Peters had worked with his boyhood idol ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard, he’d guided Bernard Dunne to the world title and he’d packed out stadia throughout Ireland.
But the sport was changing and with “different elements” becoming increasingly influential, Peters decided to walk off into the sunset when his contract ended with RTE.
“I was just ‘gone fishing’,” he says.
However, fate had other plans for the Meath native but he took some convincing when the chance came to manage Taylor.
Yes, as an Olympic Games gold medallist Taylor was already a massive star in Ireland by then but women’s boxing was in its infancy in 2016.
Was there a market for it? Was there a future in it? Peters admits he wasn’t sure.
“People say I’m a smart fella but I mustn’t be that smart because I turned Katie down twice,” he says with a chuckle.
“Bridget (Katie Taylor’s mother) came to see me first about managing Katie and I said: ‘Ah Bridget… I’m kind of finished with boxing, I’ve been there and done that and I’m out now’.
“Then Bridget and Sarah (Katie’s sister) came out to me and I refused again.”
When Bridget and Sarah returned, this time with Katie, he changed his tune.
Taylor’s commitment and passion was obvious and she had such belief in herself that Peters decided he had to give it a go.
“I worked with Ray Leonard from 2001 to 2006 and he had what I call ‘gunfighter’ eyes. Katie has them too, she is very persuasive,” he says.
“So I said: ‘Ok, let’s go and see Eddie Hearn’.”
They shook hands on their deal. There was no contract and there never has been one. Taylor delivers in the ring, Peters delivers outside it… It’s a unique relationship based totally on trust.
“We went into the meeting with Eddie in London and we didn’t know where we were going,” he says.
“We didn’t know how we were going to get there.”
There were 13 bouts on the bill at Wembley Arena when Taylor made her professional debut there on November 26, 2016 and the 2012 Olympic Games gold medallist was 10th on the card.
There weren’t many watching when she stopped Poland’s Karina Szmalenberg a minute into the third of the scheduled six rounds but with Peters constantly fighting her corner and pleading with Eddie Hearn to give her more exposure, she climbed and climbed towards the bright lights.
Even Peters has been surprised by how far she has come because where she is now didn’t exist when she started out.
Taylor, as we all know, will sign off on her wonderous career at a sold-out Croke Park on September 5.
Times have changed and sport has changed but the fighter never has.
“I believe Katie is the greatest Irish sportsperson of all time and she is one of the greatest Irish people of all time,” says Peters.
“We’ve never had a contract and she hasn’t changed in all our years together – she is such a special person.
“The mountains we’ve climbed!
Brian Peters (right) as Katie Taylor celebrates victory over Delfine Persoon in their IBF, WBC, WBO, WBA, Ring Magazine Women’s Lightweight World Championship clash at Madison Square Garden, New York.
“We were getting £10,000 a fight when we started out and about three fights in I was offered a sponsorship deal worth five or six hundred thousand from a betting company.
“We didn’t really know where we were going then, we didn’t know what direction we were going but Katie wouldn’t touch them.
“She said ‘no’ to it and I knew she would because she wouldn’t want to influence young people to gamble.
“Since then we’ve had all kinds of offers and Katie wouldn’t touch a lot of them. That’s her integrity, her humility… Fame and fortune hasn’t changed her one bit which is beautiful to see.”
Women’s boxing has changed dramatically over the last decade and that’s mostly down to Taylor for her skills, box office appeal and unwavering commitment.
“I remember fighting with Sky Sports back then trying to get Katie up the card to showcase her,” explains Peters.
“Women fight two-minute rounds so it’s different to men’s boxing, it’s a sprint.
“Before Katie there were flashes of great things in women’s boxing with fighters like Laila Ali and Deirdre Gogarty but there was no consistency until Katie came on the scene.
“In 2016 Eddie wasn’t that long in the job (as head of Matchroom Boxing) so times were different and it was a hard sell and hard to get good opponents.
“But Katie always produced. As a wee lad I used to watch Hagler, Hearns, Duran, ‘Sugar Ray’ Leonard on the TV and I’d say to myself: ‘Imagine if I could meet those guys?’
“I believe God sent me Katie Taylor because she is a combination of the four of them.”
Taylor has beaten them all and won it all and after she bested rival Amanda Serrano for a third time at the top of the bill in Madison Square Garden last year she told her team that the final bell had rung, unless…
There was one more box left to tick, topping the bill at the 82,000-seater theatre of Ireland’s sporting dreams on Jones’s Road: Croke Park.
Rumours of Taylor fighting at Croke had been circulating for a few years.
Meetings had been held, discussions had taken place but the prospect seemed like a distant dream.
“I’d been trying for years to make it happen,” says Peters.
“After Serrano III she said she’d retire, it was Croke Park or nothing… So there was no pressure on me! I decided I’d give it one last go.
Katie Taylor at Croke Park where she will fight IBO champion Flora Pili for the undisputed super-lightweight championship of the world on September 5. Picture: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile (Ramsey Cardy / SPORTSFILE/SPORTSFILE)
“Peter Aiken came on board, the momentum gathered, there was a swell of passion in the country, a swell of good will and Eddie was ready to really go for it. Timing is everything, you need the stars to line up and then you’ve got to be ready to make the move.
“After we beat Serrano in 2022 we had momentum, then we lost it big time (after defeat to Chantelle Cameron in 2023 which Taylor avenged in a rematch) and then Katie ends up with a couple of fights on Netflix, she fought on Mike Tyson’s undercard… How could you even dream that was going to happen?”
When the Croke Park fight was eventually confirmed a press conference in a function room in the Hogan Stand was hastily convened.
Peters was probably the most surprised in the stadium when he was overcome with emotion and tears flowed as he reflected on the magnitude of what was unfolding.
“I’m 30 years trying to act like a tough guy and now everyone’s giving me stick after my performance but it was a great relief, it had just been so difficult,” he said.
“The job was to get Eddie and Matchroom to understand the love we have for Croke Park. It’s our coliseum, our cathedral… Muhammed Ali fought there and now Katie Taylor will fight there and it’s going to be the greatest show on earth.
“We wouldn’t even have dreamed this was possible.”
Tickets for the fight sold out in less than half-an-hour and 25 per cent of them were priced at €40 which, in today’s market, is a bargain.
At Taylor’s insistence there are alcohol-free, family-friendly areas and with Irish music guru Peter Aiken also on board to provide the entertainment between the contests, Peters is predicting a spectacular celebration of Irish culture on September 5.
“We could have got a lot more average ticket price but we (himself, Aiken and Eddie Hearn) are all ok for a few quid,” he says.
“Money isn’t the prime directive here. We’re going to have people from six to 86 going to this event, we’ll have people from Donegal to Dingle to Belfast… all over.
“Cut an Irish person and they bleed GAA, they bleed Croke Park.
“I have fighters from nine different countries, I was in Texas recently, I had a show in India, I had a show in Brisbane, I’m in Sao Paulo, Brazil later in the year… I’m all over the world and everywhere I go I see county jerseys, people are proud to wear them and that wasn’t always the way.
“Irish people want to identify with home and with the GAA and I had trouble with Eddie getting that through to him what Croke Park means to us, to fight on that sacred, hallowed turf.
“But I thought it would sell out quickly because of how it is priced and it’s one of those ‘Where were you when…’ moments, the last chance to see the legend.
“It’s going to be a magical night and a celebration of Irish culture, arts, showbiz and sport.”
And of course there is a fight to win. Come hell or high water, the only thing that can possibly spoil the night is for Taylor’s opponent, relatively unknown French fighter Flora Pili to shock the Dublin crowd by beating their beloved in the clash of the super-lightweight champions.
“Pili is 11 years younger, she’s undefeated and under the radar, what an opportunity for her,” adds Peters.
“But the key component for Katie is her experience.
“What a fitting end it will be.”