Katie Taylor's Final Fight at Croke Park

Katie Taylor will fight for the final time this Saturday. The 40-year-old Irish boxing superstar faces France's Flora Pili for the undisputed super-lightweight championship in front of more than 80,000 fans at Croke Park in Dublin, promising to retire win or lose.

Taylor leaves as Ireland's most beloved and internationally accomplished athlete. She is also considered the most significant female boxer globally since Christy Martin.

An Unmatched Career

Her amateur record includes five world championships and an Olympic gold medal from the 2012 London Games, where she carried Ireland's flag. As a professional, she won undisputed championships in multiple weight classes. Her professional record stands at 25 wins and 1 loss, with six knockouts.

That sole loss came via majority decision to Chantelle Cameron in 2023, a defeat she avenged six months later. Taylor also engaged in a historic trilogy with Amanda Serrano, headlining the first women's boxing card at Madison Square Garden in 2022 and defeating her rival three times in total.

Pioneering the Path

When Taylor was young, boxing was not sanctioned for women or girls in Ireland. She recalled having to disguise herself as a boy to get fights and being "snickered at and laughed at" in gyms. At age 10, she wrote a letter to Irish boxer Deirdre Gogarty, who had moved to the U.S. To pursue fighting.

"How did you do it when everyone tried to stop you?" Taylor asked. Gogarty advised her to keep working and showing her skills. Taylor later became a leading advocate for including women's boxing in the Olympics. A 2011 Guardian report called her the "poster athlete" for the campaign.

Her efforts succeeded. The 2012 London Olympics became the first to feature women's boxing, and Taylor won the first gold medal in the lightweight division. After the International Olympic Committee agreed to sanction the sport, AIBA president Ching-Kuo Wu stated women would not be boxing in the Olympics without Taylor.

Building a Professional Legacy

Taylor turned professional in 2016 with lofty ambitions. She texted promoter Eddie Hearn, asking him to represent her. "I think I could do for women's pro boxing what I did for the amateur sport: bring it into focus and generate a serious interest," she wrote. Hearn agreed, and they have worked together ever since.

She moved to the United States to train with coach Ross Enamait in Connecticut, living anonymously in Vernon. This allowed her to focus away from the adoring crowds in Ireland. She married real estate broker Sean McCavanagh last year.

The Croke Park Dream

Fighting at Croke Park, a stadium deeply tied to Irish culture and history, became a years-long goal for Taylor. The Gaelic Athletic Association, which operates the venue, initially resisted. After the stadium hosted major musical acts like Garth Brooks and Taylor Swift, it could no longer refuse the homegrown hero. Tickets for her farewell bout sold out in 30 minutes.

"I'm not sure if there’s any other country in the world where 80,000 people turn up for a female athlete," Taylor said this week.

Her opponent, 29-year-old Flora Pili, enters undefeated at 12-0 with two knockouts but is largely seen as a footnote to Taylor's finale. Pili promised through an interpreter to give "200 percent" and try to win the belts.

Reflecting on her impact, Taylor noted the change she has seen. "You walk into every boxing gym now in the country, it's packed with female fighters," she said, calling that the greatest part of her legacy.