Katie Taylor's Farewell: A Career Eddie Hearn Says "You Couldn't Make Up"
Katie Taylor's final professional fight is set for Saturday, September 5 at Croke Park in Dublin, where she faces Flora Pili with a chance to become undisputed light-welterweight champion once more — holding all four major sanctioning body belts in the division simultaneously. The bout will be broadcast live worldwide on DAZN, capping a decade-long professional career that began with an Olympic gold medal, five world amateur titles and seven European amateur titles already to her name (BBC Sport).
Her promoter, Eddie Hearn, has been reflecting on the journey. In a full sit-down interview with talkSPORT Ireland, he summed Taylor up in a single word: "REMARKABLE!" (talkSPORT Ireland). Speaking to BBC Sport, he went further: "The whole story, you couldn't make it up" (BBC Sport).
The story nearly did not happen. Hearn has described walking into a meeting with Taylor, her mother Bridget and manager Brian Peters about 90 percent decided against getting involved. Taylor's passion and determination won him over, and he headlined her professional debut in November 2016 on a card at Wembley Arena, slotting her in after Ohara Davies' victory over Andrea Scarpa (BBC Sport).
His father, Barry Hearn, was openly sceptical. "No one's interested in the women's boxing," Barry said at the time. He changed his mind after watching Taylor's debut (BBC Sport).
Getting to Croke Park — the 82,000-capacity headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association — was its own battle. Hearn expressed regret at not bringing Taylor there sooner, following extraordinary ticket sales for the fight (The Independent). Staging an event at the venue costs nearly twice as much as a typical show, according to Hearn, and at one point he warned that if the Croke Park fight fell through, Taylor might simply retire, telling Boxing Insider "the deflation of not getting Croke Park will lend itself to saying I surrender" (Boxing Insider).
It did not fall through. Fight week began on Tuesday, September 1, with the weigh-in set for Trinity College Dublin (Matchroom Boxing). The undercard features Taylor's cousin, a former UFC star turned professional boxer, adding a family thread to an already loaded night (Matchroom Boxing).
Hearn has promised a spectacle befitting the occasion, describing the team's approach as a "Katie Taylor attitude" — a "refuse to be beaten attitude, never say die" (Bad Left Hook). As for the fight itself, he expects nothing cautious. "It's an all-out war because it's the only way Katie knows how to fight," Hearn told Yahoo Sports, adding that she would not try to "box and move" (Yahoo Sports).
What makes Taylor's career resonate beyond the belts is how unlikely the path was at every turn. A woman's boxing debut headlining a professional card was not a given in 2016. A Croke Park fight was not a given in 2025. Taylor kept pushing until neither could be denied, and on Saturday night in Dublin, she gets her farewell on the stage she always wanted.
