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Saturday night at Croke Park, Katie Taylor left her gloves, her many world titles and the Irish flag in the center of the ring before bidding an emotional farewell to boxing.
When all was said and done, the greatest women’s pugilist in history cantered to victory over Flora Pili, leaving the sport as a three-time undisputed champion. Her career, of course, is much more than her titles. Not only is she the most decorated fighter to ever represent the women’s code, but the trail she blazed has had much broader ramifications.
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When her dream of competing at Croke Proke became a reality, despite Ireland’s decades-long love affair with the Bray fighter, many questioned whether she could fill more than 80,000 seats in the country’s national stadium. Less than 20 minutes after they went on sale, she proved them all wrong again when the event became an emphatic sell-out, 83,000 strong, one of the most-attended boxing events in modern history.
Taylor has been silencing doubters for years.
During her amateur career, Ireland stood with her on her quest to turn Olympic boxing into a reality for women. Not only did she make it happen, she claimed the gold medal in the inaugural event at the London 2012 Games. They’ve remained by her side ever since, something that was not lost on the once-in-a-lifetime athlete after her final bow.
“Croke Park, we did it, we brought boxing back to Croke Park,” Taylor declared after her final victory in the sport.
Taylor celebrates following her undisputed super lightweight title victory over Flora Pili.
(Stephen McCarthy via Getty Images)
“You were with me in London 2012, you were with me with the heartbreak of Rio. You stayed with me when I turned pro. You stayed with me, traveled around the world with me. And now you are here with me and it’s amazing. I don’t know any other country that would sell 80,000 tickets for a female athlete, I’m convinced that Ireland is the only country.”
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“This is beyond my wildest dreams,” she added. “The people of Ireland gave me a dream ending to a dream career.”
Taylor was dwarfed by the size of the gargantuan national stadium Saturday night as she walked to the ring. Fireworks exploded above Croke Park into Dublin’s night sky as tears cascaded down the faces of many within its walls — including Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn.
There was a festival atmosphere in Dublin. Men, women and children of all ages poured out of Drumcondra train station, a 10-minute walk from the stadium, hours before the doors of the event opened. These were not boxing fans as such, nor were they explicitly sports fans. They were just Katie fans — one of the largest catch-all demographics on the island.
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Kiosks around Dublin’s north inner city displayed their wares. There were Katie Taylor hats, Katie Taylor t-shirts, Katie Taylor’s hoodies and more Irish tricolors than you’d see on O’Connell Street on St Patrick’s Day. Usually, the same vendors split their inventory between the colors of rival counties who are set to go to battle on Croke Park’s famous field. In a way, the presence of Taylor merchandise alone underlined her unique status on the Emerald Isle — a unifying force that can only be rivaled by the national football team.
Even if the night was all about Taylor, you couldn’t help but feel for Pili as she made her way to the ring.
Her entrance came in the direct aftermath of one of the most rousing recitals of the Irish national anthem — Amhrán na bhFiann (The Soldier’s Song) — ever witnessed. Mid-anthem, when you thought the stadium couldn’t get any louder, an image of Taylor flashed up on the huge screens and it erupted to a new level.
Aoife Scott, left, and Róisín O perform “Amhrán na bhFiann” before Taylor’s ring walk for her final fight.
(Stephen McCarthy via Getty Images)
Despite the French fighter kicking into gear in the seventh round, there was no real sense of jeopardy among the masses. They burst into song as the two traded blows. The “Croker” chorus played all the hits — “Olé, Olé, Olé,” “There’s only one Katie Taylor,” “The Fields of Athenry” — and in between rounds, when the DJ dropped various dance floor fillers, the stadium briefly became a nightclub, with 83,000 Gaels dancing in unison.
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Irish boxing journalist Gavan Casey often talks about the lunacy Taylor can display in the ring. In her epic battles with Chantelle Cameron and Amanda Serrano, there were times when the textbook technician threw caution to the wind after getting caught with a big shot, becoming almost delirious in her attempts to get one back on her foe.
Pili did not present the same challenge as Cameron and Serrano, but when the 10-second clapper sounded in the final round, Taylor planted her feet and let her hands go. The crowd rose to their feet and the atmosphere swelled in the heat of battle for the legendary fighter one last time.
There was fear among the island that so many attending a boxing bout would inevitably produce some unruly behaviour in the early hours of Sunday morning. Yet as thousands poured out onto the streets surrounding Croke Park, the festival atmosphere remained. If anything, the Garda (Irish police) looked bored with nothing to do other than direct traffic.
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Remarkably, after two days of downpours, the rain stayed away as well. At Tuesday’s press conference, Taylor’s manager joked that he’d made a deal with God that Dublin would remain dry beyond 4 o’clock on fight day. It seems even the Lord himself is a fan of the Bray boxer.
Retirements in combat sports are famously flimsy, but let’s hope this one is the real deal.
As Taylor said herself, it was a dream ending to a dream career. And in return for her fairytale ending, she gave Ireland one last memory to treasure — one that will sit alongside countless others from a career that has become one of the greatest sporting stories ever told.
