Ireland’s Katie Taylor eyes fairytale finish to trailblazing boxing career

Unbeaten French challenger Flora Pili stands in the way of Taylor becoming undisputed world champion for a third time.When Katie Taylor began boxing, she sometimes entered junior contests as “K Taylor”, her hair tucked beneath her headguard so nobody would realise she was a girl.Now aged 40, she is preparing to bow out from the sport in style in front of 80,000 fans at Dublin’s Croke Park on Saturday.Unbeaten French challenger Flora Pili stands in the way of Taylor becoming undisputed world champion for a third time, with the Irishwoman’s WBA, IBF and WBO super-lightweight titles on the line, along with the vacant WBC belt.“I’m not sure if there’s any other country in the world where 80,000 people would turn up for a female athlete,” Taylor said this week.“I want to put on a performance worthy of everyone’s support over the years. This country has travelled around the world to watch me fight,” she added.Taylor’s storied career has taken her to some of the biggest venues around the globe.In 2022, she and Amanda Serrano became the first women to headline a boxing card at New York’s Madison Square Garden.Taylor has also boxed at Wembley, Cardiff’s Principality Stadium and the homes of the Dallas Cowboys and Boston Celtics.But she craved a return home and the first boxing show at Croke Park – the home of Irish Gaelic sports – since heavyweight great Muhammad Ali beat Al “Blue” Lewis there in 1972.Taylor, though, warned she cannot let the celebration surrounding her retirement affect her performance.“It is too dangerous of a sport to have your body in the ring and your heart outside of it thinking about retirement,” she said.Olympic breakthroughTaylor was just 15 when she contested Ireland’s first officially sanctioned women’s boxing match in 2001.