Boxing:Katie Taylor will face home favourite Cheng Dong in a bid to retain her world lightweight title tomorrow after she comfortably defeated Russian Ayzznat Gadzhieva in three rounds at the AIBA Women's World Championships in Ningbo City, China.
Taylor is guaranteed a silver medal after the 18 points win. The Bray woman, fighting in the 60kg division, was never in trouble against the Russian and had raced into the 5-1 lead by the end of the first round.
She extended that to 11-2 by the second and finished off her opponent by landing another nine blows in the third.
"I think that this was probably my best performance of the tournament so far and I got off to a great start and I built on that. Boxing a Chinese opponent in China for a World title is always going to be difficult," said the 22-year-old.
The reigning World, European and European Union lightweight champion stopped Peralta Celeste in the first round of her quarter-final after narrowly beating Danusa Dilhofova of the Czech Republic in a controversial 4-3 result that prompted an official complaint from the Irish camp.
Dong earlier beat France's Cindy Orain 6-1.