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'One of the best'
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In Short: Boxing great Katie Taylor ended her illustrious career with a unanimous victory over Flora Pili at Croke Park, drawing praise from fellow boxers and fans alike.
Boxing great Katie Taylor has signed off on a glorious, title-laden career that blazed the trail for women’s boxing in her native Ireland and around the world with a win over France’s Flora Pili in Dublin.
Her farewell also brought top-level boxing back to Croke Park for the first time since Muhammad Ali defeated Al “Blue” Lewis in 1972, with more than 80,000 fans in attendance.
Former world champion Carl Frampton said Taylor's relationship with the Irish public was unlike anything else in boxing, while Tony Bellew described the occasion as one of the most remarkable exits the sport had seen.
Taylor eased to victory over Flora Pili while realising her dream of boxing at Croke Park, in front of 80,000 fans, with Westlife performing before the main event and Croke Park providing a fitting backdrop to her final night.
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.
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- The victory completed a remarkable journey for Taylor, who began boxing at a time when girls were barred from amateur competition in Ireland and sometimes entered bouts simply as “K Taylor”.
- She went on to win Olympic lightweight gold at London 2012, when women’s boxing made its games debut, before turning professional four years later.
- Taylor finishes her professional career with 26 victories and one defeat, having won world titles at lightweight and super-lightweight.
- 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.
- 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.
- She looked relaxed, which seems an impossibility, but Taylor is always the calmest soul at the centre of any boxing storm.
Sources
- BBClink