I can’t say there has been a boxing occasion I can think of where those who are planning to attend expect to be reduced to tears.
Sure, sometimes boxing makes you want to cry. Sometimes it makes you want to bang your head against the wall.
But on Saturday, I’m expecting close-ups of weeping fans, and of the bottom lips of Eddie Hearn, Brian Peters and, yes, even Katie Taylor, to tremble.
For it is this weekend, at Croke Park, no less, where the Irish heroine will bow out of professional boxing.
Aged 40, she has nothing left to prove, little left to give, but she wants the sign-off of her dreams. She wants to bring together a nation that already adores her for a celebration, and it’s likely to be emotional.
Her opponent, France’s Flora Pili, has a cursory walk-on part in the elaborate production, but there is no mistaking what the 80,000 in attendance want and expect to see.
It is all about Katie Taylor.
It is her night, her send-off, her farewell.
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“I’m actually blown away by the support, to be honest,” Taylor said on a recent call with about a dozen media members, myself included. “We weren’t really sure how the ticket sales were going to go and so to wake up to the news that 80,000 tickets were sold and that was 17 minutes or whatever it was. I was just… I’m blown away by the support and it’s been an amazing few weeks and just an amazing few days. Even on that tour bus going around the country and just going around all the local radio stations feeling the excitement for people. I think it was around that time I realised this could actually do okay, I think, but I never really expected it to sell as many tickets. I really couldn’t believe it and this is beyond my wildest dreams at this stage.”
Taylor has lived out her wildest dreams.
Her list of achievements is just about as long as anyone’s in boxing and there are really no boxes left to tick. She’s boxed on a Mike Tyson bill, she’s avenged her only loss, she’s headlined twice at Madison Square Garden, she’s set record after record and won belt after belt, but one dream seemed almost unreachable, and that was Croke Park.
It was manager Peters who called her with the news.
After Taylor’s last fight, the more comfortable of the three wins over rival Amanda Serrano, she spoke to the team and said she might not fight again, unless they could do it at Croke Park.
Peters said he’d give it “one final shot” and the addition of influential music promoter Peter Aiken swung momentum their way.
Then, Peters made the call.
“I still pinch myself that this has actually happened, to be honest, because obviously you know yourself, politically it’s been so hard to get this fight over the line and I lost hope so many times over the last few years that this is actually going to happen,” Taylor said.
“And so to get that phone call that we actually got over the line… this is the stuff of dreams. It’s the fairy-tale end I always wanted. And it’s been just amazing preparing for this fight over these last few weeks. I can’t believe it’s actually happening.
“I think after the last fight, I was thinking what else is there to chase after really, and what can get bigger than Madison Square Garden and the only thing that I could think of is Croke Park… or maybe a big fight in Las Vegas or something like that, but actually I can’t believe I’m actually here talking about a Croke Park fight, to be honest… I had basically retired after the last fight and then my manager actually rang me up and said, ‘Croke Park is actually going to happen’ and, yeah, I mean this is stuff of dreams.”
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It is hard to find the words to describe what Katie Taylor means in Ireland, but over the years, it is the thoughts of her peers that – without fail – have rung in my ears the loudest. Paddy Donovan, Tyrone McKenna, Andy Lee, Mick Conlan, Adam Olaniyan, Carl Frampton… they are unified in their unwavering belief that Katie, who used to have to dress as a boy to get fights as an amateur, is the best of all of them, and in every way.
You could almost imagine Irish boxing stars forming a guard of honour for her on Saturday, such is the reverence she has.
But you couldn’t tell that.
As Peters always says, she’s the same girl now as she was then. Money, fame… no change.
Just Katie.
That is a significant reason why Brian is so proud and why, at the press conference to announce the event, he wept like a proud father-of-the-bride at a wedding. Many have joked that Brian will never live that moment down, so it only made sense that I asked Katie about it.
“I said it’s the first time I’ve ever seen Brian getting emotional,” she smiles of the man who’s been with her since the start. “Actually I finally broke him is what I was saying to him. I think he’s getting a lot of stick from that!”
Taylor took the question how it was meant, a loosener, but then also did not fail to follow up because she understood all too well where the tears had come from. It is the end not just of her journey but their journey.
“I think that just goes to show how much it actually meant to him,” she continues. “And he worked so hard on this himself over these last few months to actually get this over the line and we’ve been speaking about this maybe for the last four or five years. I don’t think people outside of Ireland really understand how much Croke Park actually means to us, and the history behind Croke Park and, politically, it has been so tough to get this done. So it meant so much, the fact that we’re actually there on the top table at this press conference actually announcing that the fight has actually happened. And what an amazing response about this event as well.”
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In 2016, armed men stormed a weigh-in at The Regency Hotel in Dublin and one man was shot and killed and two injured as the Hutch-Kinahan feud escalated into more bloodshed.
Boxing in Ireland slowed to a virtual standstill and only recently have the wounds begun to heal, a decade on. Ironically, this event is happening now Kinahan is home, in Portlaoise Prison, having been extradited from a Dubai jail having been wanted by US and Irish authorities for years.
Last month in Ireland, Callum Walsh returned from the USA to share top billing of a show that saw Aaron McKenna become the IBF’s middleweight champion, and the week before that Pierce O’Leary and a host of young Irish stars played to a full house at the 3Arena.
There is a renewed buzz around the sport in Ireland now, and after Taylor mentioned politics, I followed up by asking her where she felt Irish boxing was now, in comparison to 10 years ago.
“Yeah, Irish boxing is in an amazing spot right now,” she says. “I’d say even 10 years ago when I did turn pro, we weren’t even having these big bills, big shows at home. It was very hard to get a boxing show in Ireland during that time. My first homecoming fight was obviously against Chantelle Cameron that time a few years ago [2023]. But that was even a big ask to get that big show back home. In the last few years, Irish boxing has been booming and we have a lot of amazing talent.”
On Saturday, fresh life should be breathed into a new start. It might be the end for Katie, but this is a launchpad from which Irish boxing can take itself into the next generation, with the likes of Bobbi Flood and Olaniyan on the undercard.
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Croke Park has its own mythology attached to it and so does Taylor. Combine the two, and something special is coming. From Muhammad Ali’s victory over Al “Blue” Lewis in 1972 to the great bands who have played to packed houses.
For Taylor, it’s the GAA and the Hurling finals she remembers most, waiting to watch them on RTE, who have completed a rights deal with DAZN to screen the fight to every home in Ireland. Katie went to some of those games and experienced the atmosphere. It’s not lost on her when she says: “The Croke Park events are very, very special.”
Even at the press conference, as she walked around the cavernous stadium, she was saying to herself: “I can’t believe I’m going to headline here.”
Katie admits she has thought about this a lot in camp, about how it’s the final chapter. She knows she will have to hold her emotions together.
“I have a fight to win here,” she adds, narrowing her gaze. “I have a fight to prepare for. But I don’t know if there’s any way of actually preparing for that moment, though. I just have to live it and deal with it as the night goes on. I think it’s going to be a very, very special night for not just Irish boxing but just for Ireland as a whole. I hope this night’s going to be a night that people remember for many, many years to come and obviously the most important part of this night is that I get my hand raised as well at the end of this night – and I have a job to do. I have a job to focus on and I have to just focus on that.”
It is all too easy to forget about bridesmaid Pili. The 29-year-old is 12-0 (2 KOs) and has the chance to make a name for herself while making herself the most hated woman in Ireland.
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As we go through the call and my colleagues prepare to ask their questions, Taylor answers them all with kindness. When she goes to BBC Sport, it’s: “How are you doing, Katie, all well?”
“Yeah, not too bad, David, how are you?”
“I’m not too bad.”
She entertains everyone with civil chat, and that is, shall we say, less common among the stars these days.
But she tells David that she is trying to enjoy the journey to the final fight. She is taking time to take it in and appreciate it.
“I said to my coach a few weeks ago when we actually started training for this fight, ‘This is going to be the last time we’re here in the gym together, let’s enjoy it, let’s enjoy the last fight.’”
But, make no mistake, in case David started to feel the sentiment: “I’m giving it my absolute all one last time, the training camp has been tough as it always is. I’ve put my body through the trenches as I always do. I’m preparing for a huge battle on fight night, so training camps are very, very tough. But yeah, I am definitely going to be looking forward to just enjoying the moment and enjoying my life after the sport as well – because my whole life has been one big training camp and so I’m looking forward to just relaxing and taking it easy after this fight.”
She also knows that Pili is coming to trash the party. Taylor called Pili a “real threat” and, truth be told, with Taylor’s mileage and after all of the hard fights, anyone could be a threat.
Part of the Taylor lore has been the legendary battles, the epic exchanges, digging deep, going to the well. If it doesn’t run dry against Pili, it would do soon.
With that in mind, Taylor warned against complacency and said she was too experienced to take her foot off the gas, anyway. It indicates that she is ready for one last push.
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Taylor smiles and even jokes that she’s enjoyed doing media this time around. While she’s not strictly a recluse, she wouldn’t go to the opening of an envelope, as the saying goes.
It is about embracing the experiences and holding onto the memories to cherish when she’s no longer doing it.
While she admits she will miss the intensity of the gym, she knows the pressure and expectation on her each and every time is burdensome. Yes, she’s always expected to win, but so much more of her is expected. She’s expected to be Katie Taylor everywhere she goes, and that’s a privilege, of course, but it doesn’t make things easy.
Of course, she has a family to share that with. They have been “bombarded” by ticket requests. Even some of her most ardent fans, who have previously-travelled to watch her, have been unable to get a hold of the hottest ticket in town.
Taylor pauses and calls that fact “very sad” but then switches her gaze to the outpouring of love that she has felt by the desire for everyone to be there, to support, to celebrate, and to say goodbye to a boxing treasure.
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Katie smiles when she recalls the tour bus around Ireland after the fight was announced that she “felt like one of those pop stars going around on a tour bus for a few days.”
“But,” she adds, “there’s times I was waking up I didn’t even know what country I was in. It was such a busy few days but definitely, during that time, I felt the excitement for people and the buzz around the country.”
As she discusses this part, it makes you wonder why she doesn’t like doing much media. She’s not bad at it. She has all of us eating out of the palm of her hand.
That comes with her charm, but also the fact that we know the journey and respect the adversity she has quietly crashed and bashed her way through and the unassuming way in which she has so gracefully and violently done it.
Now she can see the next generation coming through, including managerial-stablemate Tiah-Mai Ayton.
“I think it’s some of the talent I’ve seen, it’s absolutely remarkable and even looking back on my start of my career having to pretend to be a boy just to get a few fights, women’s boxing is such a sport in Ireland, and women’s boxing was included in the Olympic Games, but here we are,” she says. “It’s been just amazing progress of my generation and I’m so excited to see where women’s boxing will be in actually 10 years’ time because these young girls coming up are absolutely phenomenal.”
Katie remembers her debut. She was 15 when she fought Alanna Audley Murphy in the National Stadium. That was the start of women’s boxing in Ireland. She had been going to the gym with her father and brothers for years before that, and that is when she had to pretend to be a boy, to get some experience.
“It’s been just an amazing journey looking at it all really,” she admits. “And that first night against Alanna, we both made history and that was the start the doors opening for women’s boxing in the country.”
Of course, the ride, through the amateurs and pros, has been laced – at times – with uncertainty, even down to the will-she/won’t-she of Croke Park.
“I’m sure there’s moments where I probably lacked motivation sometimes or whatever but I don’t think I ever fell out of love with the sport for long periods and I’ve obviously faced disappointments before in my career, and heartbreaking moments – and the ups and downs of the boxing life against the ups and downs of sport – and I think the closest I’ve ever been to quitting the sport was when I found out that women’s boxing wasn’t going to be included in the Beijing Olympics [2008]. That was probably the closest I’ve ever been to giving up. But thank God I pushed on and I went for another few years to actually get to London because I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you about this amazing fight on September 5th… I obviously dreamt of becoming an Olympic champion as a kid and that came to pass and I think these last 10 years, I don’t think in my mind I had the capacity to dream these things and headline an MSG on a couple of occasions and just having a career… and having the impact I have had over the last few years has been so special. I’m definitely walking away with a grateful heart after September 5th and what a privilege it’s been to be able to have such an impact on the world of women’s boxing.”
The call nears its natural conclusion. Taylor has camp to return to, I’s to dot and T’s to cross.
But the other writers and I can’t stop thinking about the night, about Croke Park, about what it will feel like.
Of course, not even the world’s finest sports psychologist could put Katie in a room and have her visualise what she will see when she steps out from behind the curtain or the noise that will greet her when her fans see that final ring walk.
Katie has allowed herself to consider what it might be like, but never for too long. Pili must be her priority.
“Every now and then I have,” she says when asked how she will feel on Saturday night, when all of Ireland comes to a proud standstill. “But it’s not something I think of too often. I never thought about it too often in my previous fights. This is very, very different because I know this is going to be my last walk to the ring and so I have to hold the emotions together, focus on the job at hand. I can get emotional after the fight.”
(All photos courtesy of Matchroom Boxing)