DUBLIN, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Ireland's Katie Taylor ended her career in style on Saturday, the most decorated female boxer beating France's Flora Pili by unanimous decision to hang up her gloves as an undisputed world super-lightweight champion before an 83,000 Croke Park crowd.
Taylor, now 40 but too much for her 29-year-old opponent, finished her 10-year professional career on a high with a 26-1 record and an array of belts -- from the WBO, WBA, WBC, IBO, IBF and Ring Magazine -- laid out before her on the canvas.
Two judges scored the fight 100-90 and the other 98-91 but reading them out was purely procedural with the outcome clear well before the final bell and the crowd already celebrating.
LONDON 2012 AND THE HEARTBREAK OF RIO
Pili's defeat, by one of Ireland's greatest sporting heroes and the country's first female Olympic boxing champion, was her first in 13 fights.
"Croke Park! We did it," said Taylor as she saluted the crowd after a final onslaught that had Pili pushed to the ropes in a flurry of punches.
"Every one of you here helped me win. You were with me in London 2012, you got me through the heartbreak of Rio (2016, where she lost in the quarter-finals), you stayed with me when I turned pro, you travelled around the world to watch me - Boston, Brooklyn, Manhattan -- now you're here with me."
As the 2012 Olympic gold medallist walked to the ring for the last time to the sounds of 'All Hail King Jesus', the emotion written across her face, the crowd cranked up the noise while a barrage of fireworks lit up the night sky to mark the end of a golden era in Irish sport.
Irish band Westlife had earlier entertained the crowd at the Gaelic games stadium that Taylor calls the "Cathedral of Irish sport".
There was not a shadow of a doubt that Taylor had won every round at the midpoint of the 10-round fight, landing blows at will and unleashing a three punch triple combination of right and left hooks in the sixth that drove her opponent back on her heels.
Pili showed some fight too, coming back in the seventh to remind Taylor there was still danger in her best period of the fight.
At the end, after the interviews and emotional tributes and family embraces, Taylor walked around the ring before placing her gloves in the centre according to tradition.
"I don't know of any other country that would sell 80,000 tickets (for women's boxing). Ireland is the only country," she had said earlier.
"She was a very awkward opponent and a great opponent. Thank you very much to her for being involved in this epic night."
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ken Ferris)
