Katie Taylor makes the final ring walk of her career Saturday night, September 5, at Croke Park in Dublin, defending her WBA, WBO, IBF and Ring Magazine super lightweight titles against unbeaten French challenger Flora Pili with the vacant WBC belt also on the line. The card streams worldwide on DAZN, included with a subscription rather than on pay-per-view, and airs free-to-air in Ireland on RTE2. Main event ring walks are expected around 10 p.m. local time, 5 p.m. ET.
Taylor (25-1, 6 KOs) has said this is her last fight, and the setting is the one she spent years chasing. Croke Park has not hosted boxing since Muhammad Ali fought Al “Blue” Lewis there in 1972. According to The Irish Times, general sale tickets for the 82,000-capacity stadium sold out in half an hour in June.
Victory would make Taylor, 40, undisputed champion at 140 pounds for a second time and a three-time undisputed champion overall, following her reigns at lightweight and super lightweight. The Bray native won Olympic gold at London 2012 and five world amateur titles before turning professional in 2016. Her only loss came against Chantelle Cameron in Dublin in May 2023, a result she reversed six months later, and she has since beaten Amanda Serrano twice more to close out their trilogy, most recently at Madison Square Garden in July 2025.
Taylor received what amounted to a hero’s reception at Tuesday’s final press conference at The Helix in Dublin, and she was direct about what the occasion means.
“I’m still pinching myself that this is actually happening,” Taylor said, per the Irish Star. “I’m just a few days away from making my last ring walk in Croke Park. This is an absolute dream, in front of 80,000 people.”
“Like I said before, I am so blown away by all this amazing support. I am so proud to be Irish. I’m so proud to represent this amazing country every single time I step inside the ring,” she added. “We can be very proud as a nation because I’m not sure there is any other nation in the world where 80,000 people would turn up for a female athlete.”
She was equally direct about the danger of treating Saturday as a coronation.
“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, she’s an undefeated fighter and I’m very, very aware of that,” Taylor said. “I’m trying not to reflect too much on it because I have a job to do. It’s too dangerous of a sport to have your body in the ring and your heart out of it thinking about retirement.”
Pili (12-0, 2 KOs), 28, of Saint-Avold, France, arrives as the mandatory challenger and a heavy underdog seeking her first major world title. She turned professional in 2019, won French and European honors at junior welterweight, and claimed the IBO belt in December with a majority decision over Serbia’s Jelena Janicijevic. She has not previously faced an opponent near Taylor’s level, and she is 11 years younger than the champion.
Speaking through a translator on Tuesday, Pili embraced her position. “I’m very proud to be here and I want to thank my team who have stood by me over three months in camp preparing for this big fight,” she said, per The Irish News. “I have nothing to lose and everything to win. I am the underdog for the fight so there’s less pressure on me and I’m going to be giving it everything I have from round one to the end. I’ll give everything I can and hopefully I’ll take away all the belts.”
Her trainer, Cyril Cherchi, offered a sober assessment of the assignment. “If you look at the CV of the fighters then Katie is the best of all-time,” Cherchi said. “Pili has come from nowhere but she’s younger, she’s hungry and this is the opportunity of a lifetime.” He added, “I don’t think Flora will knock Katie out but she can win on points. I think she has a chance.”
Taylor’s trainer, Ross Enamait, is treating the challenger accordingly. “She is a big 140 pounder, unbeaten, and she doesn’t care about the crowd or what this means for Katie or to Ireland,” Enamait said, per The 42. “She’s here to win and spoil the show. We’ve got to keep our head down and do the job and we can enjoy it afterwards.”
Promoter Eddie Hearn, who staged the event with Aiken Promotions and Brian Peters after months of describing the card as Croke Park or bust, struck the same note. “Flora Pili and her team have no interest in the fairytale story of Katie Taylor,” Hearn said. “They’ve come to win, and these are very dangerous people.”
The Irish News reports that Belfast’s David Irving will referee, with Robin Taylor and Efrain Lebron of the United States and Germany’s Diana Dres-Milani judging at ringside. The winner will also receive the WBC’s commemorative Queen of the Celts belt, created for the occasion in collaboration with WBC Ireland.
The undercard leans heavily Irish. Heavyweights Dave Allen and Dublin’s Thomas Carty meet over 10 rounds, Limerick’s Paddy Donovan faces Belfast’s Tyrone McKenna at welterweight, and Dublin’s Emmet Brennan takes on Taylor Bevan at super middleweight. Former UFC fighter Molly McCann boxes Sylwia Doligala at super bantamweight, with Joe McGrail vs. Matthew Boreland, Paul Ryan vs. Paddy Gallagher, Adam Olaniyan vs. Matej Hudak and Bobbi Flood vs. Jack Swallow completing the card.
Fight week concludes with Friday’s weigh-in at Trinity College before the first bell Saturday. Whatever happens against Pili, Taylor’s place in the sport’s history is already settled. Saturday determines only how the record ends.
