Despite his success in the sport, her father originally tried to dissuade Kaci, from taking up boxing, but it had the opposite effect.
“Sometimes when your mum and dad tell you you can’t do something, you want to do it more and I think that’s what happened,” she joked.
“He always said girls don’t box and at that time they didn’t, there were no opportunities for girls to go to the Olympics for example, but Katie Taylor was paving the way and she was in our club and it was great for me to look up to another female and I thought it was possible because she was doing it.”
For Rock, who was born in Belfast but raised in Wicklow, Taylor is viewed as the ultimate role model.
While the saying goes that you shouldn’t meet your heroes, the 23-year-old has had plenty of encounters with the decorated 39-year-old, having started out boxing as a six-year-old under the tutelage of Katie’s father Pete in Wicklow and ultimately staying in the sport due to the Bray woman’s success.
“Going in and out of the gym every day and seeing Katie, it spurred me on. If I had have been the only girl in the gym, even though I loved the sport, it probably would have turned me against it,” she explained.
“What you see of Katie is so true. She is the most humble person ever, she is so nice, you wouldn’t think she’s a boxer, she’s so gentle and kind. She’s a perfect role model as she has achieved everything and is still so humble.”
