On Saturday, Katie Taylor will fight for the last time as a professional boxer.
If she wins against France’s Flora Pili, she will bow out as undisputed light-welterweight champion, a title to add to all the others she has accumulated during a stellar career that changed women’s boxing forever.
At a press conference this week, she imagined what it will be like: “Walking down in front of 80,000 people, hearing the Olé, Olé, Olés one last time, seeing the Tricolours around the place.”
It’s emotional stuff from a woman who is famously reserved, and who, says Irish Times sportswriter Malachy Clerkin, keeps her talking for the ring.
Now 40 she has been boxing for 30 years, as a child fighting to even join a club, as an amateur, an Olympian and for the past 10 years, a professional.
The 80,000-seater Croke Park match sold out in 30 minutes and as he details Taylor’s astonishing success, Clerkin explains why he first thought she’d struggle to sell tickets.
Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey.