Katie Taylor concludes great boxing career with victory in front of more than 80,000 people
Katie Taylor ended her professional boxing career exactly as she had imagined for years: with a victory at a sold-out Croke Park in Dublin and with all the major world belts in the super-lightweight division. On Saturday, September 5, 2026, the 40-year-old Irishwoman defeated the previously unbeaten Frenchwoman Flora Pili by unanimous decision after ten rounds. Two judges scored the bout 100-90, while the third scored it 98-91, meaning Taylor ended her professional journey with a record of 26 wins and one loss. Reuters reported that around 83,000 spectators were in the stadium, while organizers had spoken ahead of the event about approximately 80,000 people. It was the stage Taylor had wanted for years for the end of her career.
With the victory, Taylor won the vacant WBC belt and added it to her WBA, IBF and WBO super-lightweight titles, once again becoming the undisputed champion in the era of the four major world sanctioning bodies. Matchroom Boxing and numerous reports from the event described it as the third time in her career that she had held undisputed champion status: she had previously unified all the major belts at lightweight and then at super-lightweight. Reuters states that after her final fight she also held the IBO belt, while The Ring had for years ranked Taylor among the world's leading female boxers. The farewell in Dublin was therefore not merely a ceremonial conclusion to her career, but another bout with the highest possible sporting stakes. Taylor entered the ring knowing that victory could allow her to finish her career as a champion, and she left it with exactly that status.
Complete control against the previously unbeaten Pili
The fight itself was marked by Taylor's speed, movement and experience gained in the biggest fights in women's boxing. According to reports by Reuters and MMA Fighting, Taylor controlled the distance from the start, used her lead hand and quickly moved out of her opponent's range. Pili tried to impose pressure and close the space, but she struggled to find clean targets against a boxer who had spent decades building a style based on rhythm, changes of angle and short combinations of punches. In the middle rounds, the Frenchwoman became more aggressive, but she failed to reverse the course of the fight or seriously threaten Taylor's lead on the scorecards. In the closing stages, both boxers increased the exchanges, and the final seconds of Taylor's professional career ended in a more open exchange amid the stadium's ovations.
The judges' scorecards showed just how convincing the home favorite's advantage had been. Scores of 100-90, 100-90 and 98-91 meant that two judges awarded Taylor all ten rounds, while the third gave Pili only a limited portion of the bout. For the 29-year-old Frenchwoman, it was her first professional defeat after entering the contest with a 12-0 record. Pili arrived in Dublin as an undefeated challenger and the holder of the IBO title, but her appearance on the biggest stage of her career to that point showed the difference in experience between a boxer who was only beginning to break through toward the very top and an opponent who had spent years competing in world-title fights. Taylor, on the other hand, once again demonstrated her ability to conduct an important fight with tactical discipline, without unnecessary risk and with enough pace to retain control until the final bell.
After the winner was announced, an emotional farewell followed. Reuters reported Taylor's words addressed to the crowd at Croke Park, while multiple sources state that she thanked her family, coaches and fans who had followed her throughout her amateur and professional career. Promoter Eddie Hearn publicly called her the greatest Irish sportswoman, which is the promoter's assessment, but also an illustration of the status Taylor built in Irish sport over two decades. In a symbolic conclusion to the evening, she placed her gloves and belts in the ring, after which she saluted the crowd once again. That gave the event a clear ending: Taylor did not leave the question of another fight open, but ended her career as the reigning undisputed champion.
Croke Park was a goal that remained out of reach for years
The choice of Croke Park carried significance beyond the sheer size of the stadium. It is the largest stadium in Ireland and the central venue of Gaelic sports, and Taylor had openly said for years that she wanted to stage a major boxing match there before retiring. According to the stadium's official announcement and Matchroom Boxing, the event marked the return of major professional boxing to Croke Park for the first time since 1972, when Muhammad Ali boxed Alvin Lewis there. Ali won that fight by stoppage in the 11th round, and more than half a century later Taylor became the headline star of an evening that once again transformed the stadium into a boxing arena. Organizers had already announced in June that around 80,000 spectators were expected, and the sellout confirmed the scale of interest in her farewell.
Taylor already had experience of major arenas and global broadcasts before her final fight, but Croke Park represented a different kind of ending. She began her professional career in 2016, fought most of her early bouts outside Ireland, and did not make her first professional appearance on Irish soil until 2023. That year in Dublin she lost to Chantelle Cameron, which remained the only defeat of her professional career, but six months later she defeated Cameron in the rematch by majority decision and became the undisputed champion in a second weight division. It was precisely after that rematch that she again publicly mentioned Croke Park as the place where she wanted to hold a major final fight. Three years later, that plan was finally realized.
The major event was conceived as both a sporting occasion and a farewell celebration. Matchroom built the card around Taylor, but also assembled a number of Irish and British boxers for the undercard, while the event was broadcast globally by DAZN. RTÉ provided free television coverage in the Republic of Ireland, further increasing the accessibility of the farewell bout in a market where Taylor has particular cultural and sporting significance. Although the value of her legacy cannot be reduced to the size of a stadium, the fact that a female boxer could sell out Croke Park demonstrates how much the position of women's professional boxing changed during her career.
From Olympic gold to the professional summit
Taylor's story in elite boxing began long before her professional debut. According to data from the World Boxing Council and the RTÉ archive, she won five consecutive world titles and six European championships during her amateur career. At the 2012 Olympic Games in London, she won gold in the lightweight division at a time when women's boxing was part of the Olympic program for the first time. She was also Ireland's flag bearer at the opening ceremony of those Games, and the Olympic triumph further established her as one of the most recognizable sporting figures of her generation. Her amateur success played an important role in popularizing women's boxing during a period when the sport still lacked the professional visibility it has today.
After the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, where she failed to defend her title, Taylor moved into professional boxing. Within only a few years she won world titles, and in 2019 she became the undisputed lightweight champion by unifying the four major belts. That achievement laid the foundation for the next phase of her career, during which she was no longer fighting only for titles but also to push the commercial and organizational boundaries of women's boxing. Her bouts increasingly became the main events of major cards, while opponents such as Delfine Persoon, Natasha Jonas, Chantelle Cameron and Amanda Serrano became part of a series of fights that defined the last decade of women's professional boxing.
A special place belongs to her rivalry with Amanda Serrano. Madison Square Garden officially announced that Taylor and Serrano became the first female boxers to headline a boxing event in the main arena of the New York complex in April 2022. Taylor won by split decision in a bout that became a reference point for the commercial growth of women's boxing. Their second meeting took place in November 2024 in Arlington, Texas, and Taylor again won on points. The third fight, in July 2025, was again held at Madison Square Garden, this time as the finale of an all-women boxing card, and RTÉ reported that Taylor earned her third victory over Serrano by majority decision and retained the undisputed super-lightweight title.
She turned her only professional defeat into another title
Her career was not without a serious sporting setback. In May 2023, Chantelle Cameron defeated Taylor by majority decision in Dublin and handed her the first loss of her professional career. Cameron was defending the undisputed super-lightweight title at the time, while Taylor had moved up in weight in an attempt to become champion in another division. The result temporarily halted her pursuit of a second set of belts, but it did not change the plan. In the rematch in November of the same year, Taylor won by majority decision, according to the BBC captured all the major super-lightweight belts and became one of the few female or male boxers to win undisputed championships in two weight divisions during the four-belt era.
That defeat and rematch are also important for understanding the ending at Croke Park. Taylor entered the final years of her career without a long run of easy title defenses: she fought Cameron twice, then completed the trilogy with Serrano, and finally accepted a farewell fight in which she once again had to complete the full collection of major belts. In an era in which titles are often separated because of mandatory challengers and differing interests, undisputed champion status is difficult to maintain over the long term. That is why the final victory over Pili also had concrete competitive significance: Taylor reunited the four most important belts at the exact moment she decided to end her career.
An impact measured by more than wins and belts
Taylor's professional record of 26-1 is an important part of her legacy, but statistics alone do not explain why her career is so significant for women's boxing. When she turned professional, women's fights were far less frequently given the main slots on major cards, and the largest arenas were rarely sold out with female boxers as the headline stars. Six years later Taylor and Serrano headlined Madison Square Garden, and ten years after her professional debut Croke Park was sold out for a farewell fight between two women. Those changes are not the result of the work of a single athlete, but Taylor was among the figures who accelerated them most visibly.
It is important, however, to distinguish promotional superlatives from verifiable facts. Claims that Taylor is "the greatest of all time" belong to the realm of sporting assessment and depend on criteria, generation and comparisons with other great champions such as Claressa Shields, Cecilia Brækhus, Laila Ali, Amanda Serrano and numerous female boxers from earlier eras. What is measurable is that Taylor won Olympic gold, five amateur world titles, six European titles, undisputed professional championships in two weight divisions and three times ended up holding the full set of major belts. She also took part in the first women's main boxing event at Madison Square Garden and ended her career in front of more than 80,000 spectators at Croke Park. In the context of the development of women's boxing, such a combination of sporting results and event scale distinguishes her as one of the key figures of her era.
Her influence is also visible in the way the biggest women's events are planned today. Fights for undisputed titles increasingly receive global broadcasts, top female boxers can headline major arenas, and all-women cards are no longer unimaginable in the world's most famous sporting venues. Taylor did not create that market and sporting shift by herself, but her fights with Serrano and Cameron demonstrated that women's boxing can produce events with international audiences, strong ticket sales and major media interest. The conclusion at Croke Park became a logical continuation of that development: a boxer who had spent years opening up bigger stages ultimately received the biggest stage in the country where she grew up.
Leaving at the top after three decades in the sport
Taylor began training in boxing as a young girl, and her path from local gyms to the Olympic and professional summit stretched across approximately three decades. During that time, the sport itself also changed: from an era in which women's boxing was still seeking a place on the Olympic program to an era in which women's boxing matches are broadcast globally and fill stadiums. Her own career follows almost that entire transformation. That is why the farewell on September 5, 2026 had a broader meaning than the final result on the judges' scorecards.
In the end, there was no unexpected comeback, controversial decision or defeat that would have changed the tone of the evening. Taylor defeated an unbeaten challenger, took the vacant WBC belt, regained undisputed super-lightweight champion status and finished her professional record at 26-1. Croke Park, the venue she had for years cited as her desired final stage, was sold out, and the crowd greeted the final bell aware that they were watching the end of a career whose conclusion had been announced in advance. In a sport where retirements often turn into temporary decisions, Taylor repeated after the fight that this was the end and symbolically left her gloves in the ring.
That brought to a close one of the most successful and influential careers in modern women's boxing. Sporting debates about where Taylor belongs in the historical rankings will continue, as will comparisons with champions from other generations. But the facts from her final evening remain clear: on September 5, 2026 in Dublin she defeated Flora Pili by unanimous decision, ended her career as a three-time undisputed champion and said farewell in front of a crowd of more than 80,000 people. For a boxer whose career was largely marked by breaking the limits on the size of the stage available to women in professional boxing, it is difficult to imagine a more symbolic ending.
Sources:
- Reuters – report on the Taylor vs. Pili fight, result, attendance, final professional record and undisputed champion status (link)
- Matchroom Boxing – official announcement of the farewell event at Croke Park, the belts at stake and the historical context of the event (link)
- Croke Park – official information about the Taylor vs. Pili event and the organizational context of the event (link)
- RTÉ Archives – biographical information about Taylor's amateur and professional career, Olympic gold and world titles (link)
- World Boxing Council – information about five world and six European amateur titles and the development of her professional career (link)
- Madison Square Garden Entertainment – official confirmation of the historic Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano fight in 2022 as the first women's boxing main event at Madison Square Garden (link)
- RTÉ Sport – report on the third Taylor-Serrano fight in 2025 and the conclusion of their trilogy (link)
- MMA Fighting – detailed report on the farewell fight, the course of the bout and the judges' scorecards (link)