There is something beautifully fitting about the way Katie Taylor‘s extraordinary boxing story is coming to an end.
Thirty years ago, a little girl from Bray had to hide her hair under headgear and pretend to be a boy simply to pursue the sport she loved.
On Saturday night, that same girl – now 40, a five-time world champion, Olympic gold medallist and three-time undisputed champion-in-waiting – will walk into Croke Park for the final fight of her career, with 82,000 people watching.
It is, Taylor admits, the ending she always dreamed of.
‘To be honest, I was saying after the last fight against Serrano, nothing can get bigger than MSG, so I think I’m going to just hang up the gloves,’ Taylor tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘The only thing that could be bigger than MSG is actually Croke Park, but that looked unlikely to happen.
‘So when I got the phone call then from Brian that it was actually going to happen, I couldn’t believe it. I was so excited and so emotional. This is really the fairy-tale ending I was actually looking for.’
Katie Taylor is set to bid her final farewell to boxing at Croke Park on Saturday night
Taylore takes on Flora Pili in a bid to finish her incredible career as undisputed light-welterweight champion
Taylor has spent her entire life chasing impossible things. At 10, she began boxing with her father Peter, a former Irish champion, but girls were not allowed to compete. So she found a way.
She disguised herself as a boy and fought wherever she could. When women’s boxing was finally sanctioned in Ireland, Taylor made history by taking part in the country’s first officially recognised female bout in 2001.
What followed was beyond even the wildest dreams of that stubborn little girl: Olympic gold at London 2012, five world titles, six European titles, undisputed crowns at lightweight and super-lightweight, and history-making nights at Madison Square Garden. Now Croke Park.
‘This was an impossibility a few months ago, and I don’t think people outside of Ireland really understand the importance of Croke Park and the fact that it’s there. It’s a part of Irish culture and it’s our national stadium. Politically, it’s been so hard to get this fight over the line for many years, and we’re here now. It’s actually happening, and not only that, but it’s in front of a sold-out crowd.’
Yet beneath the excitement is the realisation that this really is goodbye. Asked about making her final ring walk, entering the dressing room for the last time and knowing there will never be another fight camp, Taylor becomes emotional.
‘You’re making me emotional here, Charlotte,’ she laughs, trying to hold back the tears. ‘Yeah, it’s… I’m trying not to get too emotional, but even just talking about it, I’m starting to choke up. It’s all becoming a bit too real now, honestly. Just give me a minute.’
After pulling herself together she continued: ‘I have to obviously hold my emotions together because I have a very important job to do. And I’m trying not to reflect too much on the whole journey because I actually have to go in and perform, and the most important part is that I get my hand raised.
‘But every now and then I do think about it, and I do get a bit emotional. I have given my life to this sport and it’s everything I know and I love, so the idea of not doing it anymore hurts but I have to actually focus on not thinking too much about it. It’s also too dangerous a sport to have your body in the ring, your heart out of it, thinking of retirement.’
Taylor has been a major icon for young women in the boxing community over the years
Flora Pili is intent on ruining the fairytale. The unbeaten Frenchwoman is 12-0 and will challenge Taylor for her WBO, WBA and IBF titles, with the vacant WBC belt also at stake.
‘She’s a young, hungry fighter. She’s undefeated. She’s big, she’s strong, she’s going to come to fight. She looks a bit awkward as well. She has long arms and will look to pressure me. She’s obviously trying to ruin my night. She’s trying to ruin the fairytale end, and so I have to be at my very, very best to win this fight.’
That competitive instinct remains, but the decision to retire has been coming for some time.
‘What else is there to chase after?’ Taylor asks.
‘It’s been such an amazing journey, but it’s been a long and hard journey as well. It’s been difficult on the body, and my whole life has basically been one big training camp after training camp after training camp. Even as an amateur boxer, I gave so much of my life and so much of my time to amateur boxing. It was gruelling, and I have a lot of wear and tear on my body. There have been little niggles here and there that have popped up over the last few years, so I knew physically it was time.
‘And then mentally, I think an athlete’s life is a life full of sacrifice, and usually the casualty of those sacrifices are your relationships. It’s not always the case, but it was the case for me. I found it very hard to focus on relationships when I’m actually in the middle of these big, amazing moments in my career. So I think it is the right time to bow out. I get a chance to actually invest in my marriage now, just pour my energy into that and enjoy the fruits of my labour.’
Then comes the familiar Taylor humour.
‘I’ll also look forward to not getting punched in the face again after this fight. It doesn’t help I don’t know how to actually box and move,’ she jokes. ‘I have to turn it into a war.’
But Taylor’s greatest legacy will not be measured in belts.
Taylor’s opponent Pili is 12-0 and intent on ruining the Irishwoman’s fairytale ending in Dublin
When she looks back, she remembers the pioneers who helped pave the way – Laila Ali, Christy Martin, Lucia Rijker, Ann Wolfe and her childhood hero Deirdre Gogarty – but she also understands what her own journey has meant.
‘I want to be remembered as a great fighter, but I also think the one thing I want to be remembered as is that I left my sport in a better place,’ she says.
‘I think that’s probably the proudest moment of my whole career, inspiring a new generation of young female fighters, and seeing every boxing gym in the country just packed with female fighters not having the same struggles or the same obstacles that I had.”
Taylor does not know exactly what comes next, although she cannot imagine staying away from boxing entirely.
‘I’ve been involved in boxing for the last 30 years of my life, so I think it would be strange just to walk away and not have a part to play,’ she says.
‘I do love my sport, and I love the boxing gym environment. And I think that’s something that I’m always going to be involved in but I am actually looking forward to being able to just enjoy my life after this fight.
‘I’ve been boxing since I was 10 or 11 years of age. It’s been a gruelling and tough journey. It’s been an amazing journey, but it has been very, very tough. And I am looking forward to not feeling the pressure of fights again, the pressure of expectation, and not having to prepare for these brutal matches again, and just kind of enjoy life for a change.
‘It’s been a lot on my family too. Even my siblings’ lives were scheduled around my training growing up because of my Olympic dream. I look back and think how supportive and amazing they were. If I was in their shoes, I’d be so bitter because their lives revolved around me and my schedule. So, it will be nice to enjoy life together now.’
First, though, there is one final war. One final ring walk. One final chance to have her hand raised.
