DUBLIN, Ireland -- Molly McCann has revealed the part Katie Taylor played in her journey as she prepares to fight on the undercard at Croke Park this weekend.
Taylor (25-1, 6 KOs) will have her swansong fight in front of 80,000 fans on Saturday before retiring from boxing after 10 years as a professional and 25 years in the amateur ranks while McCann will face Sylwia Doligala on the undercard.
McCann (4-0, 1 KO), who started boxing professionally last year following her MMA career, revealed on Thursday she was shown a video of Taylor training two decades ago and said she wanted to be just like the Irish star.
"I remember walking into a boxing gym and being turned away, being told I wasn't allowed to box because I was a girl," McCann said.
"I remember starting boxing, I was at the Golden Gloves gym and my coach brought in a camcorder and he said: 'Watch this girl I've just seen her fight, I've just seen her train with her dad.'
"Lo and behold it was Katie and Pete [Taylor] I was like: 'Oh my God I want to be like her, I want to be like that.
"20 years later, here we are."
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While McCann and Taylor are cousins, the former UFC star doesn't broadcast their connection out of respect.
However, she paid tribute to Taylor and the legacy she will leave after he career.
"It's always been a lovely connection ... But I was very much aware, Katie is such an icon and a hero I wouldn't want people or her to think I was trying to ride the coat tails," McCann said.
"To the girls out there it is nerve wracking when you've got to go into a room full of loads of boys doing a sport which is predominantly theirs but you look at Saturday night it's one woman leading a whole nation.
"She's changed the face of it. Why can't that be you in any sport you choose to do? That's everything that Katie is trying to say and to prove."
