A Long-Awaited Homecoming
Katie Taylor will make her first appearance at Croke Park on Saturday night, headlining a card for the undisputed world light-welterweight title against undefeated French challenger Flora Pili. The fight, expected to draw a sell-out crowd of 80,000, marks the end of Taylor's professional career, a journey that began when she reached out to Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn in November 2016. Taylor, the 2012 Olympic champion, will be seeking to become a three-time undisputed world champion in front of a home crowd.
Hearn, reflecting on the anticipation surrounding the event, expressed regret that the fight had not happened years earlier. "If Croker would have originally gone 'Yes, this is going to be massive', I would have gone 'Wow' and we would have done it," he said. "But it was like, 'I don't know. Blimey, if they're not sure, do we really want to be gambling with these costs?' People can deflate your spirit, which is quite unusual for me, but they did deflate my spirit a little bit over the years because they made me question whether we could do it or if it would actually work."
He added: "And I'm disappointed in myself, actually, that I allowed that to happen because maybe we could have done it earlier." Hearn noted that financial viability, security expenses, and logistics had previously made him hesitant, but he credited Irish promoter Peter Aiken and the three Amanda Serrano fights for giving him confidence this time around.
"But then I didn't have the confidence that I had going into it this time with Peter Aiken involved and the three Amanda Serrano fights," he said. "Croker helped out as well and they were fantastic in the end, but I never thought we'd do 40,000 tickets on a pre-sale."
The Fight Ahead
Taylor, 40, weighed in at 139.6 pounds, while Pili, 29, came in at 139.9 pounds, both under the 140-pound limit. The weigh-in at Trinity College drew large crowds, including celebrities such as Riverdance star Michael Flatley, a former Golden Gloves amateur boxing champion. The 16 fighters on the undercard also made weight.
Hearn was candid about the challenge Taylor faces against a younger, undefeated opponent. "Katie's fighting a young, strong girl who likes to trade, so there needs to be a switch from the euphoria and 'This is going to be amazing'," he said. "Katie was saying she needs to prepare herself for war, because she can't let this pass her by."
He predicted an aggressive contest: "It will be an all-out war because it's the only way Katie knows how to fight. She's not going to try and box and move, because she'll want to leave it all in the ring."
Croke Park's Preparations
The fight is the first boxing match at Croke Park since Muhammad Ali defeated Al "Blue" Lewis there in 1972. Croke Park chief executive Peter McKenna detailed the extensive preparations, which came just days after the venue hosted a Bon Jovi concert. Construction staff worked around the clock to dismantle the concert setup and install boxing equipment, including 12,000 seats on the stadium floor.
"It's similar to what we do at concerts. It's in the middle of the park this time," McKenna said. "The issues really were getting time to take down the whole Bon Jovi setup, putting in the boxing gear and then putting 12,000 seats onto the stadium ground. We have two crews working really hard on it. Having seen it this morning, it looks like we're in great shape and ahead of schedule."
Organisers have planned entertainment for all tastes, with Westlife as the headline act. "This is where Matchroom Boxing and Peter Aiken (of Aiken Promotions) have worked really well together," McKenna said. "They both know what they do very, very well. So they're going to intersperse the boxing card with musicians like The Mary Wallopers and Westlife. And then there'll be pyrotechnics and various other displays during the course of the evening."
The event is designed to keep the crowd engaged throughout. "The whole thing is to keep the crowd entertained up until the big moment, which is the ring walk," McKenna explained. "It's a big feature of international boxing and world title fights, where the challenger gets exposed first and then the champion is given the adulation of the crowd. I think it's an event that has captured the imagination of everybody."
McKenna also acknowledged the unique logistics of staging boxing at the stadium. "There's a 10-minute interlude where people can really get to celebrate Katie and cheer her on before she gets into the ring and then prepares for the fight," he said. "That brings its own logistics because boxing bouts don't have a defined time like we have in our own games. As soon as she gets into the ring, we'll have the stadium prepared to exit, because the fight can end very quickly and then people want to go home. So it's logistically slightly different than we would for a match or for a concert."
A Career to Remember
Taylor's professional career has been marked by defining bouts, including the trilogy against Amanda Serrano at Madison Square Garden and a narrow victory over Delfine Persoon. Her only professional loss came against Chantelle Cameron in May 2023, but she avenged that defeat three months later. Now, a quarter of a century after her first amateur fight against Alanna Audley at Dublin's National Stadium, she will close her career at Croke Park.
The main undercard starts at 7pm, with Taylor Bevan facing Emmet Brennan at super middleweight. The main event is expected to begin just after 10pm. The weather forecast looks favourable, adding to the anticipation for what McKenna called "an event that's really captured the imagination of everybody." He admitted that he had not foreseen the sell-out: "Nobody, apart from maybe Katie and those close to her — Peter Aiken and Eddie Hearn — foresaw that this would sell out. I certainly didn't see it selling out, but it has."
Hearn noted the emotional resonance of the occasion, saying: "We're getting hundreds of messages every day from people saying 'Please, I want to bring my daughter'. It's heartbreaking, in a way." The event promises to be a celebration of Taylor's legacy as one of Ireland's greatest boxers.