Taylah Gentzen has revealed the transformative nature of a potential victory over the IBF lightweight champion Elif Nur Turhan.
The Australian challenges Nur Turhan on the undercard of Bakhram Murtazaliev-Josh Kelly at the Newcastle Arena in Newcastle, England, aware that in the event of victory she will not only change her career but her life.
Opportunities of the nature of the one she is embracing are sufficiently valuable she willingly accepted it at less than a month’s notice.
At 35 years old she is aware of the extent to which, despite the considerable progress being made, women’s boxing is still struggling for recognition. There exists more opportunities than ever in Australian boxing, but comparatively few of those are for women – according to Gentzen she and her contemporaries “rarely get paid”.
“Pretty much every female fighter in Australia – we work full-time to be able to afford to train,” Gentzen told BoxingScene. “We rarely get paid to fight, to be honest. Some people are forking out money from their own pockets – I know a lot of girls that have done it, especially in the first 10 fights of their career, to be able to actually get a world ranking.
“They’re forking from their own pockets to be able to get people over to Australia or for them to get overseas to be able to get on cards and really getting paid. Opportunities like this, it’s absolutely incredible – it does not come around too often. Now that MVP are kind of in the picture and they’ve picked up a couple of Aussie girls, those girls – they’ve not just got lucky, they’re brilliant fighters as well – it’s becoming more often that these opportunities are gonna start to show. I’m incredibly lucky, but I’ve also worked incredibly hard and I’ve taken a lot of fights at the last minute, and shown that I have the potential and been able to stand there on the big stage with the best in the world to be able to get these opportunities.
“Australia is starting to get a name for female fighters – and males as well. We don’t get as much promotion because boxing’s tiny in Australia; we didn’t have the grassroots they had overseas in the UK and America and these other places. But it’s starting to come through slowly.
“This is what dreams are made of. This is why I’ve been boxing for 15 years. This is why I never give up; I never give in. I just keep going – I keep going despite every single upset that I’ve ever had. This is every single fighter’s dream. I’m still going to go back to Australia; I’m still going to be working full-time; I’m still going to be a mum [to three-year-old daughter Stevie], because I’m a mum back home as well. But it just opens up way more opportunities. If it does happen I’ve got more fight potential overseas – people start to recognise who you are. It definitely changes the game.”
Gentzen, from Ipswich, Queensland, works for the Australian Defence Force as a physical training instructor. The late notice with which she accepted Saturday’s fight means that she arrived in England a week before fight night. She regardless fought and won as recently as December 6, when on the undercard of Jai Opetaia-Huseyin Cinkara she earned a decision over Jessica Adams at the end of eight rounds.
In nine professional contests she has lost only once, via split decision to Shauna Browne in January 2025. Two months later Browne lost to the 30-year-old Nur Turhan, who stopped her inside a round.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for her,” Gentzen continued. “She’s where she is ‘cause of what she’s done, and she’s beaten some incredible fighters. She’s quite one-dimensional – we’re gonna see on the night who the better fighter is out of both of us – [but] she’d definitely have to be the best I’ve fought. She has a world title for a reason. I’ve fought some pretty good fighters through the amateurs, but the pros is completely different.
“In Australia we’re pretty sheltered with who we can fight over there. Shauna Browne, she knocked her out in the first couple of minutes – I would love to have seen that fight played out. I don’t know if it was just a lucky shot, but she’s proven she’s got more than a lucky shot now.
“Her power – that seems to be what she’s got. That big right hand; big left hook. Her movement [is a weakness] – her footwork. That’s what we’ve picked out. That will probably be her downfall. We’re about to find out.
“I got the call about two-and-a-half weeks ago, ‘Can you do it?’, and I said ‘Hell yeah – of course I can’. This is what dreams are made of. These are opportunities that you can’t pass up.
“After that fight [with Adams] I had a little bit of downtime – nothing crazy. Went home for Christmas; re-regulated myself; my nervous system got a little bit of time to relax, and I think I came back better for it. I actually wanted to start fighting three-minute rounds this year, so I jumped in the ring and did three-minute rounds the day I got back, not knowing this fight was coming. I felt great, so I think that it’s done me good.
“I’m focusing on this fight. Once we take home this world title, which is the plan, I’ll sit down and have a chat to Tasman [Fighters, my promoters] and I’m sure we’ll figure out where the plan is from here. I’m not even really thinking ahead at the moment.
“I would have liked to have got here a little bit earlier but I had training and sparring and everything set up back home. I didn’t really have a lot of time to be able to organise things back down here. Seven days is enough, really. I’ve gotten off the plane before – this is amateurs again; different scenario – but fought two days later or the next day. Mentally, you’ve just got to prepare yourself and you’ve just got to push through.”
