Ireland’s Katie Taylor became a world champion in her first year as a professional and now the Olympic Gold medallist has set herself up for a bumper year in 2018.

Training mainly in humble surroundings in the US last year, Taylor added a number of improvements to her already impressive amateur game.

Namely, she really adapted her fighting style (which was already suited) to the pro ranks.

Fight by fight last year you could see her sitting down on her punches more, staying patient, using a variety of shot selection and importantly in her last fight, showed that she can hang in there when a strong opponent pushes her onto the back foot for a change.

Women’s boxing has always been a tough sell but with the advent of female MMA through the likes of Ronda Rousey’s stardom in recent years in the UFC, there seems like no logical reason that Taylor and even the likes of Natasha Jonas, Claressa Shields and Nicola Adams who all turned pro over the last year or so as well, cannot start to generate the excitement necessary that fans will shell out to watch women fight at the highest level of the sweet science.

A good fight is a good fight at the end of the day and Taylor certainly showed she could scrap last year in the prizefighting game.

With a planned homecoming in Ireland thought to be in the works for around April time, she’ll have a chance to return to her native Emerald Isle soon to showcase the fruits of her considerable labour abroad these past 18 months or so.

Her fight style is one that UK network Sky Sports have taken to so far.

There’s no reason why a US network and other TV companies won’t be interested in showing her lightning-fisted exploits if she keeps going at the pace she’s going.