A boxer from Sandy Row in south Belfast has described her role in the first sanctioned women's bout under Irish boxing rules, as Katie Taylor prepares for what has been billed as her final fight.

Alanna Nihell, then fighting as Alanna Audley, faced Taylor in October 2001 at Dublin's National Stadium in an amateur contest. Both were teenagers at the time.

Taylor will face unbeaten French fighter Flora Pili on 5 September at Croke Park in Dublin, competing for the vacant WBC light-welterweight title. Victory would make Taylor a three-time undisputed world champion.

Nihell said neither girl understood the impact of their 2001 meeting at the time. The bout was the first women's amateur fight to be officially approved by Irish boxing authorities. Nihell recalled a long standing ovation from the crowd and said it was a major step forward for female boxers on the island.

She later won a bronze medal for Northern Ireland at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Nihell said breaking into boxing as a girl in those years was difficult. She credited Deirdre Gogarty, who fought on the undercard of Mike Tyson's 1996 bout with Frank Bruno, as an inspiration.

Nihell's younger brother Lewis Crocker won the IBF world welterweight title at Windsor Park in Belfast last year. She introduced him to boxing at the age of six and was in his corner for his first professional contest in London in 2019.

Now based in England, Nihell works as a boxing coach with the Army and as a performance coach for Team GB. She said she remains friends with Taylor and plans to be at Croke Park in September.