Katie Taylor has revealed that she came close to walking away from professional boxing without ever getting the opportunity to headline a fight at Croke Park.
The Irish superstar will finally achieve that long-held ambition when she returns home to face France’s Flora Pili on September 5, with the historic Dublin venue set to host Taylor’s final professional appearance.
Taylor’s manager, Brian Peters, has been alongside her throughout an extraordinary professional career spanning 26 fights over a decade. Together, they have experienced some of the biggest moments in women’s boxing, including major nights at Madison Square Garden, undisputed championship victories, fights across multiple weight divisions and record-breaking events.
But a homecoming at Croke Park remained the dream that had repeatedly appeared out of reach.
When the fight was officially announced on June 5, the significance of the occasion was clear. Peters became visibly emotional while discussing the long-awaited event, something Taylor later acknowledged during a media call.
Taylor said the reaction showed just how much the venue meant to her manager, who had spent years working behind the scenes to make the event possible.
“I don’t think people outside of Ireland really understand how much Croke Park actually means to us,” Taylor said.
She also pointed to the historical and political significance surrounding the venue and explained that getting a major boxing event there had been a difficult process.
The response from the Irish public demonstrated the scale of Taylor’s popularity. All 80,000 tickets were reportedly sold within around 30 minutes, underlining the enormous interest surrounding her final fight on home soil.
The event will also mark the return of professional boxing to Croke Park for the first time since 1972, when Muhammad Ali faced Alvin “Blue” Lewis at the famous stadium.
For Taylor, however, the significance goes far beyond another major event. She admitted that after her previous fight, she had begun to believe the Croke Park dream might never become reality.
“I actually had a conversation with the team after the last fight saying, ‘I think this is going to be it for me, guys, unless Croke Park actually happens,’” Taylor recalled.
Despite those doubts, she continued training while keeping a small hope alive that the opportunity could eventually materialise.
That hope became more realistic when Peters told her several months ago that he intended to make one final attempt to secure the stadium. Working alongside promoter Eddie Hearn and Irish music promoter Peter Aiken, Peters eventually helped bring the complicated negotiations to a successful conclusion.
Taylor then received the phone call she had been waiting years to hear: the Croke Park fight was officially happening.
She admitted that she had repeatedly lost faith that the event would ever come together, making the confirmation particularly emotional.
For Taylor, the September 5 showdown with undefeated Pili represents much more than another fight. It is the culmination of a dream she had carried throughout her career and, potentially, the perfect setting for her final bow as a professional boxer.
After years of uncertainty, Taylor finally has her Croke Park fairytale.
