Croke Park's 80,000-Strong Farewell Card: Heavyweight Crossroads and Bad Blood on the Undercard
Katie Taylor's farewell fight has sold out Croke Park, with around 80,000 fans expected to fill the stadium on a Saturday card that reaches well beyond one woman's goodbye (womenboxing.com).
Taylor and Flora Pili are scheduled to make their ringwalks at about 22:10, capping a night that runs deep with Irish fighting storylines (BBC Sport).
The chief support bout pairs heavyweight Dave Allen (27-9-2) against Thomas Carty (11-1). Allen, 34, has been candid about where he stands: his ambitions of fighting for top honours ended after a defeat by newly-crowned IBF heavyweight champion Filip Hrgovic in May (BBC Sport). Carty, a 30-year-old southpaw — right foot forward, left hand back — suffered the only loss of his career at Madison Square Garden in March 2025, falling to Dajuan Calloway while sustaining an ACL injury. The knee injury kept him sidelined and gives this fight an extra layer of question: how much has Carty recovered, and how much does Allen have left?
Further down the card, Emmet Brennan faces fellow unbeaten super-middleweight Taylor Bevan. Brennan's incentive is unusually concrete: Brian Peters, who represents Bevan, has offered Brennan double pay if he wins (BBC Sport).
The pick of the undercard, though, is Paddy Donovan against Belfast's Tyrone McKenna — a fight built on genuine needle and contrasting mindsets. Donovan lost his IBF welterweight world title bid to Lewis Crocker by split decision last September, dropped in round three during a fight that went the distance (BBC Sport). He has framed the Croke Park appearance as a homecoming, saying he is proud to be Irish and promising a "masterclass" (Irish News).
McKenna, a former WBC International super-lightweight champion, has taken a different tone. He is approaching the bout with what he calls a "war mentality," predicting "there's going to be blood scattered all over" the ring (Irish Echo). Donovan has acknowledged the danger, noting that McKenna has nothing to lose because it could be his last fight (womenboxing.com).
Molly McCann also fights on the undercard, adding crossover appeal from her MMA audience to a night already brimming with it (BBC Sport).
What makes this card work is its range. Taylor's farewell is the headline, but the supporting bouts carry their own stakes — a heavyweight at a crossroads, an unbeaten prospect with a point to prove, and two Irish fighters whose styles and words suggest nobody will need to wait long for action.
