Linares vs. Crolla II: Katie Taylor To Face Milena Koleva
By Elliot Foster
Katie Taylor has had her next opponent confirmed.
The Irish amateur star, from Bray, moved to 3-0 (2 KOs) on March 4, exclusively live on Sky Sports Box Office, with a stoppage victory at the O2 Arena in London.
And after dispatching of Italy’s Monica Gentili inside five rounds, as part of the undercard to Tony Bellew’s 11th-round stoppage victory over David Haye, it was confirmed by promoter Eddie Hearn that the 30-year-old would be back in action next weekend.
Taylor was added to the undercard of Jorge Linares’ world lightweight title rematch against Anthony Crolla at the Manchester Arena, exclusively live on Sky Sports, on March 25 and Boxing Scene understands she will step up to eight rounds as she looks for her fourth victory in the paid ranks since turning professional last November.
Milena Koleva (9-7-1, 3 KOs) will be in the opposite corner to Taylor.
The 28-year-old Bulgarian, who Taylor was set to face on the aforementioned Haye-Bellew card before a chest infection forced Gentili to step in, has gone the distance with some of the more established names around the weight and comes into the clash on the back of a world title challenge.
Koleva fought Maiva Hamadouche for the vacant IBF super-featherweight title as recently as January, but was stopped for the first time in her career in the last round against the French power puncher.
A win for Taylor would rubber-stamp her already-rumoured involvement on the April 29 pay-per-view show at Wembley Stadium, topped by the world heavyweight title clash between Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko, which will have a capacity crowd of 90,000 spectators.
