An undefeated Irish boxer who once fought on a Katie Taylor undercard as a nine-year-old is hoping to get a place on her massive card at the 3Arena in May.
Steven Cairns took his professional record to 5-0 with victory over Polish fighter Jakub Laskowski in Newcastle earlier this month, but his boxing journey began in earnest 11 years ago with a win on an undercard headlined by the current undisputed lightweight champion.
The Cork man, 20, defeated a fighter three years his senior at the Silver Springs Hotel in his native county as Taylor beat American Liz Leddy months before she won Olympic gold in London.
READ MORE: Katie Taylor hailed 'closest person to a saint I have met' by Michael Conlan
Cairns explained: "I fought on her undercard in Silver Springs. (Patrick) 'Pa' Flynn from Cork had something to do with the Irish team setup and was very close with Katie Taylor at the time. He used to bring her down to Cork probably once or twice a year.
"I was nine years old and they put me in with the Boy 1 Munster champion. He was getting ready to go to the All-Irelands and represent Munster so he was three years older than me but the same weight.
"I went in there and I smashed him on the Katie Taylor undercard in the Silver Springs Hotel. I remember getting photos and stuff with her afterwards. She fought an American fighter.
"I have a trophy at home and it says on it 'The Pre-Olympic Tournament' so it was literally a few months before she went out to London."
Cairns, who fights out of well renowned boxing coach Dave Coldwell's gym in England, is now hoping to share a card with the Bray Bomber once again as Taylor aims to become a two-weight undisputed champion against Northampton's Cameron in Dublin - and he promises to bring 500 fans from Cork with him to the capital.
He said: "It would be unbelievable to fight on the show, but to be honest I had visions of this sort of stuff happening when I started boxing.
"When I started getting a couple of wins and I started beating people older than me, like that was my first time fighting a guy three years older than me and he was meant to be the Munster champion.
"You could say that was my kind of step up fight and when I beat him I genuinely thought I was definitely going to be on these big stages when I'm older so that's what I've always worked towards."
Cairns can also clearly remember meeting Taylor at the Cork event all those years ago, adding: "I actually remember it very well. I remember going to the venue probably an hour or two before it started because my dad offered to help out setting up the boxing ring.
"I remember going in there and Katie was just walking around so we just went up and started chatting away to her. She was so nice, she was just completely normal and to me looking at her she was this superstar and you're kind of star-struck to be actually talking to her. It's mad to think how normal she was. The way she just chatted away.
"Watching her fight that night, everybody in there was glued to it and the atmosphere was unreal. Obviously it was a small hall show, but the atmosphere was unbelievable. Those small hall shows can be great sometimes."
Coldwell, who also works as a boxing analyst for Sky Sports, has contacted Taylor's promoter Eddie Hearn to ask about getting Cairns on the Dublin card and it is very much a work in progress.
"I know Dave has been in contact with Eddie because he's good mates with him," said Cairns. "They're trying to work something out. Nothing's concrete or confirmed yet, but they're working on it so I'm just here with my fingers crossed."
There is nothing but hard work at Coldwell's gym, with Cairns after completing nine rounds of morning sparring before doing this interview.
On his career so far, the youngster concluded: "Fight-wise I would have liked more fights by now. I wanted to probably be at least 9-0 or 10-0 by now but obviously things happen. It's boxing. It's not just two guys going into a fight, there's a lot of stuff behind the scenes that you don't see, but my progression in the gym has been second to none.
"It's not the same as a fight but the sparring I get is pretty much close enough to having a fight all the time and doing hundreds of rounds, like 30 rounds a week and it's just the way I'm progressing in the gym is unbelievable but I want to start bringing it into fights now and I just need to get that opportunity to be fighting more regularly."
READ NEXT:
Stephen Kenny reacts to Mike Maignan's 'incredible' save as he reflects on Ireland v France
Kellie Harrington releases statement after Off The Ball interview
Brian Kerr hits back at criticism over Ireland v France comments
James McClean opens up on autism diagnosis after he noticed similarities with daughter
Rangers coach headbutts Celtic women’s boss Fran Alonso at end of derby match
Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts
