Katie Taylor beats Britain's Natasha Jones

You would not want to pick an argument with Katie Taylor. That Natasha Jonas did and lost 26-15 to the Irish boxing phenomenon at the Olympics is to her eternal credit.  It was the bout of the day – and arguably the bout of the tournament so far. The ever-smiling Liverpudlian lightweight can say now that, although she missed an Olympic medal, she traded quality punches on the grandest stage with the best female boxer there has ever been or, possibly, ever will be.  Jonas joined her Great Britain team-mate and the reigning world middleweight champion, Savannah Marshall, on the way out of the inaugural women's competition at the quarter-finals stage but both gave their best.  They will be there to cheer on the third British female here, Nicola Adams, who came through in the flyweight division with a comfortable 16-7 win over the Bulgarian Stoyka Petrova. Next up for Adams is the excellent Indian Mary Kom, the mother of twins.  It is three years since Adams fell down stairs at home and was sidelined for 12 months with a back injury that threatened to cut short her career. The part-time actor (occasionally spotted in Coronation Street) will not have received more applause than she did in this ring in front of a capacity audience.

Meanwhile, Taylor, from Bray, County Wicklow, is destined to win Ireland's first gold medal at these Games to go with four world titles over the past six years. Her compatriot and a former world title challenger, Matthew Macklin, was moved to observe: "One word springs to mind watching Katie Taylor: special! Absolutely gifted."  That is three words Matt but never mind: it is easy to run out of superlatives describing a woman whose hand speed, footwork, power and ring craft are every bit as good as many of her male counterparts.  "When you see women's boxing at the highest level," Jonas said later, "and that kind of performance, how can you argue that women aren't just as good as the men?" You wouldn't argue with Jonas either. Both of them spar against men and it showed in their sharpness as, after a slow start, Jonas got to parity in round two of four, then gave nearly as good as she received, especially with tireless attacks to the body, and came through standing eight counts in the third and final two-minute stanzas.  Taylor said of Jonas: "She's a super boxer and a fantastic person. I had to work so hard. She wasn't hurt at all. I am just delighted with the win."  The packed arena was a cell of noise for most of the eight minutes, officially recorded as 113.7 decibels, as loud as any rock concert and four decibels greater than the human pain threshold, a testament to the popularity of the combatants and the sport. At many Olympic boxing tournaments the seats do not fill to capacity until the semi-finals. These were quarters but this bout was worthy of a final.