Katie Taylor won't have far to look for inspiration when she enters the ring for her long-awaited homecoming at the 3Arena next Saturday.
Taylor's childhood hero Deirdre Gogarty will be ringside at the venue in Dublin's docklands as the past and present of Irish women's boxing come together on an historic night.
It will be the first time they will have met since Taylor was a teenager.
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At the Mansion House in March, at the launch of her world title fight with Chantelle Cameron, the Bray sensation had to take a moment to compose herself.
Taylor worked the room, answering a stream of questions about her first pro fight in Ireland. Then one interviewer brought up Gogarty's name and Taylor's demeanour changed.
Gogarty was Taylor's inspiration, her guiding light in a male-dominated sport.
The Drogheda woman was Ireland's first-ever pro female boxer and world champion, her historic clash with Christy Martin taking place on the Mike Tyson v Frank Bruno II card in Las Vegas in 1996.
Now based in the US, Gogarty - like Taylor - has come home.
"Amazing," said Taylor this week. "That’s going to be so, so special, having one of my heroes in attendance.
"Not just a hero but a pioneer of the sport – and I don’t think she gets enough credit for what she actually did for women’s boxing in this country, and for what her and Christy Martin did on that night, it was absolutely incredible.
"That was one of the biggest nights of female boxing ever and just to have another pioneer there for me is so, so special.
"So I’m just absolutely delighted that she’s going to be there and I’m just so grateful for her support throughout the years as well.
"She was the only female fighter I actually knew of and she was so supportive of me. It’s actually a real privilege for me to have her in attendance."
Famously, when Taylor was 11 years old she wrote Gogarty a letter asking for her guidance as she expressed her desire to win Olympic gold. She got it.
At the Mansion House, Taylor's interviewer Ciarán McIvor from the YouTube channel Boxing Bants, who is involved in the Deirdre Gogarty Legacy Committee, explained that Gogarty had sent him a message for Taylor - and then read it out for the 2012 Olympic gold medallist.
'It is only for all the success you have had in your career that any attention has come back to me,' wrote Gogarty.
'When I opened a door for Irish women in professional boxing it wouldn’t have meant anything if you didn’t run through it.
'If you hadn’t taken women's boxing to another level then my world title and battle with Christy Martin would have just been for myself and not for women in the sport'.
Taylor welled up as she listened to Gogarty's words and, momentarily, stepped away from the microphone.
"I do remember writing that letter," said a smiling Taylor on Wednesday. "I think my mother was sitting beside me, helping me actually write the letter to her.
"Just her support in general was amazing - and I just can’t believe it, that she’s going to be there.
"I haven’t actually seen Deirdre since I was a teenager. She actually held the pads for me as well, she invited me over to her house just for tea and a chat, and just little things like that over the years that really meant so much to me.
"Her encouragement has been very, very special and I’m just excited to see her again."
She's also excited to be back home. It is seven years since she last boxed here - in Mallow's GAA complex in Cork, and at the Mount Brandon Hotel in Tralee as part of the build-up to a disastrous Olympic Games in Rio.
"They were huge nights for me," Taylor recalled.
"And it is always such a treat, fighting in front of your home crowd. Every single time I fought at home, even as an amateur in those small-town shows, the support was absolutely incredible and the atmosphere was always incredible, as well.
"This is obviously a bigger scale to that, but even those fights were so special. I can’t believe it has been so long since I fought at home. I nearly pinched myself that it's actually happening, to be honest.
"I remember the Bernard Dunne days, when big-time boxing was in Ireland and he was selling out the Point on a yearly basis and they were such special nights for the country.
"To have a chance to bring that back again, it's going to be another monumental achievement for me to become a two-weight undisputed champion in front of my home crowd.
"I'm certainly very, very motivated for this fight and I realise that this is a huge challenge for me, stepping up in weight to fight Chantelle.
"These are the kind of fights I absolutely love. I guess I do love proving people wrong as well.
"I know when some people are betting against you, like in the Amanda Serrano fight - a lot of people had her as favourite for that fight and I love the fact that I came through and proved those people wrong.
"And I have the chance to do that again on fight night."
*AN evening with Deirdre Gogarty will be held in the Crescent Concert Hall in Drogheda on Friday at 7pm.
Gogarty will tell her own remarkable story in the company of Ann-Marie Griffin, who fought her in Limerick in 1991 in Ireland's first all-female bout, as well as Deirdre Nelson - the second pro women's boxer from Ireland who fought for a world title in her first fight - and Christina McMahon, a WBC bantamweight world champ and the first Irish woman to obtain a BUI license and box in the Republic.
Other special guests include Kate Radomska, Siobhan O'Leary, Eric Donovan and Ciaran Clarke.
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