Fight week on Dublin’s northside. Katie Taylor walks into her last few days as a boxer the same way she hopes to walk out. Fists clenched, smile wide, the roars of a partisan crowd assailing her. Ready for the cavalcade of lasts that lie before her as the hours tick down to Croke Park on Saturday night.
Her last press conference. Her last public workout. Her last pre-fight interviews. Her last submission to boxing’s hokey charade, slapping on a mean face for the stare-down with challenger Flora Pili before clasping the French woman in an embrace once the cameras are lowered, like they’re old friends who’ve bumped into each other after church.
Of all the rituals imposed upon Taylor by the life that chose her, it’s no secret that she’ll miss this one the least. The fakery, the hard sell, the whirring carousel of rehearsed bullshit – none of it has ever been her thing. Whatever she does now, a life unshackled from this sort of duty lies ahead.
And yet, probably because it’s the last one, she cuts a relaxed figure up on the dais at The Helix theatre in DCU. She’s grateful, proud, determined – all the usual Katie Taylor touchstones. But maybe for the first time in her career, she’s allowing herself to stand back from it all as well and acknowledge what a special thing she’s doing. To grant herself that indulgence.
“I think it’s actually hard to prepare yourself for a moment like this,” she says. “I’ve obviously never experienced it, walking down in front of 80,000 people, hearing the Olé, Olé, Olés one last time, seeing the tricolours around the place. I’m not sure how I’m going to feel. But I’m praying that God will give me what it takes to actually control my emotions on the night.
“It’s going to be such a special night, a remarkable night. But I’m just going to go into to the ring, focus on the fight and there’ll be enough time to reflect afterwards. There’ll be enough time to reflect on this amazing career after my hand is raised.
“But I obviously wouldn’t be human if I didn’t think about it at all. I’m imagining all the thousands of stories from the little girls who are at a boxing event for the first time on Saturday evening. In my mind’s eye, I’m imagining that one of those girls might fall in love with this beautiful sport and might even surpass my achievements.
“That’s what legacy is all about. Just because of one amazing September day in Croke Park, they caught a dream. I cannot wait to hear those stories.”
She never used to speak like this. She turned 40 at the beginning of July and for so long her motivation was to get through these things without fuss, by saying as little as possible, as quietly as possible. Taylor always knew who she was and what she meant but it’s only recently that she’s felt comfortable enough to say it all out loud.
And so there are times here when she’s almost wistful about what’s ending this weekend. About how far she’s come – and how far she’s had to come. The fight-week promo featuring Barry Keoghan leans heavily into the sheer unlikeliness of the road behind her and she doesn’t brush it off in the slightest. She’s embracing it, even.
“Every single time I step into the ring, I’m looking back on my own start as a boxer. As a nine- or 10-year-old, where I had to actually disguise myself as a boy to actually get a few fights. And I was walking to some boxing gyms as a young girl being sniggered at and laughed at because, ‘Who’s this girl trying to be a boxer?’ And I had to earn people’s respect along the way.
“I’m so happy and delighted that these young girls come through now. They don’t have to go through the same struggles and adversity that I had to go through. The door is actually open for them. You walk into every boxing gym now in the country, it’s packed with female fighters.
“And that, to me, is the greatest part about this legacy. I’m so, so delighted to see everyone’s progress. We have one of the most amazing female boxing teams right now and that to me is part of my legacy as well. Saturday night is going to inspire a new generation. And like I said, I can’t wait to hear the stories of the tales of the girls who took up the sport.”
Boxing remains the toughest trade, all the same. No sport takes more delight in setting off stink bombs in your cozy theatre of self-congratulation. Pili is 11 years younger, has 12 wins from 12 fights and couldn’t care less about Croke Park or Katie Taylor, or all the young girls catching dreams on a Saturday night.
Most people turning up presume the French challenger is there as decoration but she’ll be looking for blood. Taylor’s job above all is to tune out the poetry of a week like this and make sure it’s the other way around.
“I have a job to do,” Taylor says. “It’s too dangerous a sport to have your body in the ring and your heart out of it, thinking of retirement. I have got a job to do. I’m very much focused on it.
“But I have allowed myself to think a small bit over the last few months. And just thinking about the last 30 years in the ring, all the amazing people I’ve met, the amazing sparring partners I’ve met along the way. Having a chance to meet icons of the sport, having a chance to headline these amazing arenas and now I get to end my dream career in my dream venue in Croke Park. This really is beyond my wildest dreams.
“But the most important part about Saturday night is that I get my hand raised. It’s business as per usual for me and I have a real live opponent in front of me. It’s not going to be a walk in the park. She’s here to win as well. I’m very, very aware of that and I’ve locked myself away over these last few months in preparation for this fight. It’s going to be a tough fight for sure, but that’s where I’m at my best.”
One last lap to run. It’s only a victory lap if she makes it so.