Katie Taylor’s farewell was a night of magic, impossibility and buried hatchets
On Saturday night, Katie Taylor finally walked away from the sport she changed after a night of magic moments in front of 80,000 fanatics at Croke Park in Dublin.
Her 30 years in boxing gyms and rings, at tournaments, on podiums, making history and creating memories all came to an end with a final victory against Flora Pili. The fight was only a sideshow on a night of adulation.
At the midnight hour, under a clear sky, and with the echo of Westlife still in the air, Taylor was loaded up with all four world title belts; it was win No 26, world-title fight No 21, but against a backdrop of tears and emotion, none of the numbers mattered. It was a retirement party like no other in the history of boxing, in a city that knows how to throw a party.
Taylor is 40 now, a wise veteran, and her story is the story of women’s boxing, the story of how a little girl – posing as a little boy to get a fight – changed the boxing landscape forever.
Late on Saturday night, the ring cleared during the post-fight celebrations and Taylor, after circling several times and nodding at the roaring crowd, placed her gloves in the very centre of the ring she has dominated for so long. She will never return to fighting and we will miss her.
Her entrance on Saturday, through the same tunnel that Muhammad Ali used in his 1972 fight at the sacred venue, was spectacular. She looked relaxed, which seems an impossibility, but Taylor is always the calmest soul at the centre of any boxing storm.
She fought sensibly against Pili, using her head and her feet as much as her fists. The result was never in doubt on a night when a nation stopped and watched – they had been stopping and watching in Ireland long before Taylor won her Olympic gold medal in London in 2012.
Taylor has inspired a generation of athletes across all sports. And not just wide-eyed, tiny girls with dreams of being the next Katie Taylor in the ring. She was a local hero as a teenager, a national hero as a young woman, and a global hero for the last 10 years; she has no rivals for that title in the sport she made.
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In the packed ring at the end, as family members piled in for one final embrace and hug, a man made his way to one of the neutral corners. His name is Peter Taylor, her father and first coach. Peter left the family home over 10 years ago, and on Saturday Katie praised him and his role in her success; it was the first open display of affection for her father since the split.
It was also the very first time he had seen her box as a professional. There were multiple emotional tales in that ring and in the iconic venue.
“We will never see another Katie Taylor, we will never see another night like this,” said Eddie Hearn, her promoter.
The crowd of 80,000 were reluctant to leave at the end, loitering in their thousands, singing and shouting and savouring the moment. Why leave that magical place? Why turn away when Taylor was still in the ring, posing for the cameras and smiling. Why?
Taylor was still in the ring nearly 30 minutes after the fight finished and then she left for the very last time and went on the slowest exit in history, shaking hands and stopping for pictures with those lucky enough to get close to the ringside barrier. Perhaps she also wanted to enjoy every last moment of her life as a boxer.
As midnight approached, it really was the end of an astonishing boxing career, and then Taylor went down another tunnel and out of our lives. Croke Park suddenly felt very empty, but the spirit of Katie Taylor will live forever in that grand home of Irish sport.
