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Katie Taylor finished her illustrious boxing career with a unanimous decision victory over Flora Pili at Croke Park. The event, attended by over 83,000 fans, celebrated Taylor's legacy as a trailblazer and icon of Irish sport.
Niall Kelly Reports from Croke Park EVEN IN THOSE quiet moments when Katie Taylor dared to dream, could she possibly have dreamed of a night like this?
For a sporting life that has so often defied both convention and comprehension, the ending was all the more poignant for its beautiful simplicity: venerated by an adoring crowd of 83,000 in the spiritual home of Irish sport, and after comfortably dispatching her challenger Flora Pili, Taylor took one final slow walk to the four corners of the ring before setting her gloves in the centre for one last time. They lay there, surrounded by the spoils of her final victory: her undisputed super-lightweight belts, the final adornment on an astonishing career.
The entire night was a singular moment in the long and storied history of a stadium that is not short of legend – the arena united, the usual split of county colours swallowed up in Katie Taylor t-shirts and bucket hats and every hue of green, white and orange for a woman who represents the very best of us. From early in the evening, to look out among the Croke Park crowd was to look into a sea of smiles; they came from the four corners of the country, from every walk and generation of life, to see their hero.
In one of his pre-fight interviews, promoter Eddie Hearn remarked that “this isn’t a traditional boxing crowd”. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine a traditional boxing crowd seizing on Westlife’s cue with gusto and belting You Raise Me Up all the way back to Bray; Sweet Caroline, it most certainly ain’t. But it felt like every single person in the building knew their role and brief.
Taylor has given the nation so many moments, it’s only fitting that the nation gave her this one in return, the one that does justice to the enormity of everything that came before, every door kicked open, every glass ceiling shattered, every impossibility willed into reality by sheer bloody-mindedness and a refusal to accept any limits on her legend. For the last 30 years as an athlete, whenever Taylor heard “No”, she never accepted it as a full stop in the conversation.
She only knew one response – Why not me? Why not now? And those who retreated behind the logic that “it’s just the way it is” had never met Katie Taylor. Through the nine years and first 26 fights of her professional career, the country never really got the opportunity to have its collective national moment; no companion to the glorious unity that greeted her Olympic gold in London’s ExCel Arena.
Her defining pro fights – her first undisputed lightweight title win against Delfine Persoon, and the epic trilogy against Amanda Serrano – all took place in America, and crucially for the more general Irish public, in the dead of night. Even the two previous Dublin fights of her pro career, the spiky 2023 double-header against Chantelle Cameron, were hidden away on subscription TV, and only for the truly committed. Advertisement That is why this event sold at jaw-dropping speed.
All they wanted was to be here, to roar their admiration, their gratitude and their love into the Croke Park sky, and know that she would hear them. It’s just as well there isn’t a roof over the stadium; for all the previous hand wringing and posturing over insurance costs and profit margins, the prospect of costly repairs once it had been blown off by Taylor’s supporters would surely have caused Hearn and the promoters sleepless nights.
The night’s main card, featuring two quick stoppages for Taylor Bevan and Paddy Donovan, and a bizarre no-contest between Thomas Carty and David Allen, was a pedestrian opening act. With ringwalks scheduled for 10pm, all the support bouts were done with an hour to spare; at that point, the scrambling promoters would surely have welcomed a quick blitz of Go Games to fill the gap. The stadium buzzing with anticipation, it fell to the stadium DJ to fill a gap.
It was not so much a slow build as a delicately sustained fever pitch, capped by stunning renditions of Grace and Amhrán na bhFiann by Róisín O and Aoife Scott, backed by a full-throated chorus from the capacity crowd. As Pili walked to the ring, the volume surged, swelling from a wave of boos into an oppressive, borderline intimidating chant of Olé Olé, surely enough to give even the most battle-hardened warrior second thoughts.
When Taylor then emerged from the corner tunnel of the Hogan and Davin Stands, it felt instantly iconic: dressed largely in black, walking alone, for this was the path that she forged for herself. A slow, savouring walk, set against Christian spiritual anthem All Hail King Jesus, Taylor’s arms outstretched in a literal embrace of the moment she has craved for so long.
For the final steps to the ring, she was joined by her team before ring announcer David Diamante instructed the crowd to “rise and salute your champion”, their response leaving Taylor with no option but to feel the weight of their love.
When she looked out into the stands, she looked out on those for whom this was just the opening event of a Saturday night that will carry on into the early hours elsewhere; those for whom it will be the defining sporting moment of their year, one to tell the kids and grandkids about; and in among them all, make no mistake, there will have been many young girls who will bottle the energy of this moment and carry the torch from here, taking the lead from their hero and refusing to allow others to set limits on their ambition, no matter where life takes them. As final chapters go, it’s a hell of a legacy to leave behind.
Katie Taylor Croke Park Unanimous Decision Flora Pili Boxing Retirement Irish Sports Icon
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