Mercedas Taaffe-Cooper - Breaking Barriers

Mercedas Taaffe-Cooper is an Irish boxing pioneer. A competitor in the 90s when female fighters were thin on the ground, she sparred with Deirdre Gogarty and boxed alongside Jane Couch. She was also one of the first female coaches in the country, guiding the Reynolds brothers, Stephen and Alan, who won a combined 12 senior titles at the National Stadium. Here, Merc talks about the struggle for recognition in the early years, how she and others helped knock down the door to allow Katie Taylor to fight Alanna Murphy in a groundbreaking 2001 contest, being part of the coaching ticket for the men’s World Championships that same year and much more. After a move to Australia, where she continued in an education which was encouraged by the great Nicholas Cruz, she developed further as a psychologist and exercise scientist, combining her practical skills with her boxing background to ultimately develop CounterPunch. Per her own notes it’s an ‘effective, fun-filled, evidence based program to guide young people toward achieving their undoubted potential’. CounterPunch has become a success story Down Under, recently celebrating its first national champion, and now Merc is looking to spread its influence and bring it home to Ireland. Here, she tells The Rocky Road all about her journey which started kickboxing and is now changing lives by educating kids through the medium of boxing. 

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