Sept 3 (Reuters) - Ireland's Katie Taylor will bring down the curtain on her career with a fight against Flora Pili of France at Dublin's Croke Park on Saturday in which she will try to achieve a fairytale finish to an extraordinary boxing story.
Taylor, 40, has come a long way from covering her hair and pretending to be a boy to get fights in the junior ranks, and the showdown in front of thousands of fanatical Irish fans is her chance to bow out as the undisputed super-lightweight champion of the world.
"I'm not sure if there's any other country in the world where 80,000 people would turn up for a female athlete," Taylor told reporters in Dublin.
"I'm so grateful for the support. I'm blown away by it, to be honest. I want to put on a performance
worthy of everyone's support over the years. This country has traveled around the world to watch me fight … and they'll be with me again on Saturday night."
Of Ireland's 42 Olympic medals, 19 have come in the boxing ring, and Taylor's gold at the 2012 Olympics was a defining moment for the women's sport. Four years later she turned pro, amassing titles and professional purses that she could only have dreamed of when starting out.
A native of the seaside town of Bray, just south of Dublin, Taylor tore through the professional ranks, using her speed and aggression to win the WBA title in her seventh professional fight, and she has barely looked back since.
Together with Amanda Serrano, she became the first woman to headline a card at New York's Madison Square Garden when they fought in April 2022, with Taylor winning a fight for the ages in a razor-thin split decision.
It has, however, not all been plain sailing. A gangland shooting at the Regency Hotel near Croke Park, in which one man was killed at a 2016 weigh-in, brought professional boxing in Ireland to a standstill.
Katie Taylor: 'This is what it's all about'
When she finally got to fight in the Irish capital in May 2023, Taylor suffered the only defeat of her professional career as Chantelle Cameron edged her on the judges' scorecards. And though she won a rematch at the same venue six months later, the original loss still stung.
Now, though, she has the chance to go out in a blaze of glory. The 29-year-old Pili will provide a tough test, but Taylor's focus is solely on getting her hand raised one last time.
Taylor performed an open workout on Wednesday at a venue on the north side of Dublin, picking out a young girl from the crowd to share the ring with her, and 10-year-old Clodagh Keating burst into tears as her idol laced up a pair of boxing gloves for her.
"To feel the atmosphere even in this small arena, I can't imagine what Saturday night's going to be like, and getting the chance to meet little Clodagh there, who got into the ring, this is what it's all about for me," Taylor said.
“In a few days, I’ll make my last ring walk and I’ll look back on this in a few years, and I imagine I’ll be overwhelmed.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Katie Taylor aims to repay fans for 'support over the years' in Croke Park finale
