{"id":890205,"date":"2026-09-13T06:46:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T06:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/890205\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T06:46:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T06:46:20","slug":"irelands-boxing-great-katie-taylor-bows-out-as-undisputed-champion-boxing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/890205\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s boxing great Katie Taylor bows out as undisputed champion | Boxing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__subhead\">The 40-year-old retained her WBA, IBF and WBO super-lightweight belts to become the undisputed champion for a third time.<\/p>\n<p>Published On 6 Sep 20266 Sep 2026<\/p>\n<p>Boxing great Katie Taylor has signed off on a glorious, title-laden career that blazed the trail for women\u2019s boxing in her native Ireland and around the world with a win over France\u2019s Flora Pili in Dublin.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor brought the curtain down with a points victory in front of 80,000 adoring fans at Croke Park on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n<p>The 40-year-old retained her WBA, IBF and WBO super-lightweight belts and added the vacant WBC title to become\u00a0the\u00a0undisputed champion for a third time on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor emerged for her final ring walk to a deafening reception from the sold-out crowd, with fireworks, light shows and chants of \u201cKatie, Katie, Katie!\u201d echoing around the home of Irish Gaelic sports.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-arc-image-770 wp-image-4921306\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/getty_6a9ce5bba1-1788667323.jpg\" alt=\"DUBLIN, IRELAND - SEPTEMBER 05: Katie Taylor places her gloves in the middle of the ring following victory in her final fight, the Women's IBF, IBO, WBC and WBO World Super Lightweight Titles' fight between Katie Taylor and Flora Pili on the Katie Taylor v Flora Pili: Once Upon A Time - Fight Night at Croke Park on September 05, 2026 in Dublin, Dublin. (Photo by Charles McQuillan\/Getty Images)\" fetchpriority=\"low\"\/>Taylor places her gloves in the middle of the ring following victory in her final fight [Charles McQuillan\/Getty]<\/p>\n<p>She used her superior movement and timing to control much of the early and middle rounds, but the resilient Pili refused to fade.<\/p>\n<p>The previously unbeaten 29-year-old French challenger came back strongly in the seventh, giving Taylor her most difficult round, before the Irishwoman steadied herself in the eighth and reasserted control.<\/p>\n<p>As the crowd erupted into chants of \u201cOle! Ole! Ole!\u201d, Taylor raised her arms and embraced Pili after the final bell.<\/p>\n<p>The judges awarded Taylor a unanimous decision.<\/p>\n<p>Afterwards, Taylor thanked her family, including her father, who taught her \u201chow to fight\u201d, and hugged her tearful mother.<\/p>\n<p>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 \u201cK Taylor\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>She went on to win Olympic lightweight gold at London 2012, when women\u2019s boxing made its games debut, before turning professional four years later.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor finishes her professional career with 26 victories and one defeat, having won world titles at lightweight and super-lightweight.<\/p>\n<p>Her farewell also brought top-level boxing back to Croke Park for the first time since Muhammad Ali defeated Al \u201cBlue\u201d Lewis in 1972.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 40-year-old retained her WBA, IBF and WBO super-lightweight belts to become the undisputed champion for a third&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":890206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,2057,26779,588,85,12632],"class_list":["post-890205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-europe","tag-ireland","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}