Katie Taylor has brought the curtain down on her extraordinary boxing career with a definitive victory in front of a packed, 80,000-strong crowd at Dublin’s iconic Croke Park.
The Bray fighter went the full ten rounds against France’s mandatory challenger, Flora Pili, putting on a tactical masterclass to secure her final professional bout and retire as the undisputed world champion.
Leading the wave of national pride and celebration is former elite boxer, Olympian, and Kilkenny native Darren O’Neill, who declared Taylor “an inspiration to everyone.
Darren served alongside her as the captain of Ireland’s historic boxing team at the 2012 London Olympic Games, where Taylor famously captured gold.
“Katie has been an inspiration for so many people for so long. I mean she’s instrumental to female boxing being as strong as it is at the moment.” said Darren.
“I mean she, more or less single-handedly, single-handedly got it into the Olympics, and has done so, so much for, for Ireland, and especially young females in Ireland, but you know, everybody in the, in the country who’s, looking for any bit of inspiration or as a big example of hard work and determination. Her occasion last night was absolutely outstanding. I mean she’s talked about it openly that she wanted to fight in Croke Park and it’s fitting that, the greatest female of all time followed up after the greatest male of all time, you know in Muhammad Ali fighting there many years ago.” he added.
“I’m absolutely delighted for Katie because as I say, she’s a fantastic person, obviously a fantastic boxer, but just a fantastic person in general.” said Darren
