Katie Taylor's Final Fight at Croke Park vs Pili — SkimNews
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Katie Taylor, 40, will end her career Saturday at Croke Park in Dublin against unbeaten Flora Pili in an undisputed super-lightweight fight before 80,000 fans, a venue Taylor called her "dream" stage.
- Taylor weighed in at 139.6lbs to Pili's 139.9lbs, with Taylor targeting a third undisputed world title in her final bout.
- Taylor's accolades include Olympic gold at London 2012, headlining Madison Square Garden with Amanda Serrano as the first women to top a fight card there, and avenging her lone pro loss to Chantelle Cameron.
- Taylor told the weigh-in crowd: "This is what I was born for, this is what I was made for. Let's go one more time," adding she wanted "a performance worthy of the support I have had."
- Carl Frampton, speaking on DAZN, said Croke Park's pull extended Taylor's career: "one of the reasons she held on was the dream of fighting at Croke Park," while cautioning "we can't rule out Pili."
- Three-weight champion Mikaela Mayer said she trusts Taylor's retirement is final: "If she says this is her last fight, I believe it to be," though she admitted she'd welcome a return.
Why it matters: Taylor's career arc — Olympic gold, co-headlining MSG, and now closing out at Ireland's spiritual home of GAA — helped drag women's boxing from a sideshow to stadium-scale events, and her insistence on an unbeaten mandatory rather than a tune-up signals she wants to exit as champion rather than as a nostalgia act. A loss would undercut that narrative heading into retirement.
Ask SkimNews
