‘Every girl now wants to be a boxer’: excitement in Katie Taylor’s home town for her valedictory bout
Irish boxer lauded for her tenacity and inspiration before her last fight in front of 80,000 people at Croke Park
TL;DR
- Katie Taylor, a pioneering super-lightweight champion and Olympic gold medallist, is retiring from boxing at 40.
- Her final fight will be held at Dublin's Croke Park in front of an 80,000-strong, sold-out crowd.
- Taylor's career has been marked by talent, grit, and humility, inspiring a new generation of female athletes.
- She disguised herself as a boy early in her career due to bans on women in boxing in Ireland and the UK.
- Taylor was instrumental in lifting these bans and having women's boxing added to the Olympic Games.
- Her farewell event includes musical acts and will be broadcast free-to-air by RTÉ.
- Fans in her hometown of Bray, County Wicklow, express immense pride and excitement for her final bout.
- Her opponent will be Flora Pili, an unbeaten French champion.
- The Croke Park event is being compared to the 1972 Muhammad Ali fight held at the same venue.