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Katie Taylor ended her professional career by beating Flora Pili at Croke Park in front of a crowd reported at 80,000. Her final fight drew a peak RTÉ audience of 1.6 million and a further 552,000 streams on RTÉ Player.
Katie Taylor’s farewell fight at Croke Park drew a peak RTÉ audience of 1.6 million, with an additional 552,000 streams on RTÉ Player, RTÉ said on Monday.
The average audience on RTÉ2 across the full programme was 973,000, a 74 per cent share of the available viewing audience. That made the event one of the biggest television moments of the year in Ireland. The audience peaked during Round 10, as the fight approached its climax in front of a packed Croke Park. Taylor ended her professional career with a unanimous points victory over Flora Pili.
The Bray boxer, 40, retained her WBA, IBF and WBO super-lightweight belts and added the vacant IBO and WBC titles. The victory made her a three-time undisputed champion, and she retired after the contest. The attendance at Croke Park was reported at 80,000, with some coverage putting the crowd at 83,000. Taylor savoured her final moments in the ring amid emotional scenes, having put on a show at Croke Park.
RTÉ’s coverage was free-to-air, allowing a wide audience to watch the occasion live. Interest in the fight extended far beyond the stadium, and the combined figures underlined how much the moment meant to Irish sports fans. Sports streaming service DAZN was the global broadcaster of Taylor’s final fight, working with RTÉ on the Irish coverage. It was the first boxing match at Croke Park since Muhammad Ali defeated Al 'Blue' Lewis in front of 18,000 fans in 1972.
RTÉ director of video Steve Carson said Taylor’s final fight ‘was a national moment that will be remembered for many years to come’. He added: ‘RTÉ Sport felt it was important to be able to bring live coverage from Croke Park to viewers and listeners, free-to-air, right across the country. ’ The peak figure placed Taylor’s farewell alongside Ireland’s World Cup playoff penalty-shootout defeat to Czechia last March, which also drew 1.6 million peak RTÉ viewers.
That match, played under Heimir Hallgrímsson, averaged 1.37 million and became the most-watched programme on Irish television at the time. The 1.6 million peak for Taylor’s fight was also greater than the 1.16 million peak viewership for the 2026 World Cup final. RTÉ’s figures made the bout one of the most-watched programmes of the year in Ireland and a memorable end to a remarkable career.
The feeling of the evening was captured in the phrase: ‘Katie Taylor gave Ireland a lifetime of memories and Ireland gave its champion a memory to last a lifetime. ’ The atmosphere inside Croke Park, with millions watching at home, reflected the scale of the moment. Saturday night belonged to Taylor, and her final appearance will be remembered for the attendance, the titles and the viewing figures.
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IrishTimes:TV audience for Katie Taylor’s final fight nearly double that of All-Ireland hurling finalThis story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
Katie Taylor Boxing RTÉ Viewership Croke Park RTÉ Viewing Figures Flora Pili Fight Katie Taylor Retirement Katie Taylor Farewell Fight RTÉ Audience Figures Flora Pili Croke Park Boxing Three-Time Undisputed Champion
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