Katie Taylor has said she is ‘blown away’ by the support from Irish fans after her Croke Park fight World Title clash with Flora Pili was declared a sell-out.
Organisers confirmed that Taylor will pull the curtain down on her boxing career in front of a capacity crowd of 82,000 after the September bout sold out moments after going on general sale.
With 40,000 tickets already snapped up through a pre-sale, Friday’s general sale lasted just 30 minutes before supply was exhausted.
“It is incredible,” said Taylor. “I woke up, because I’m actually in America now, and we’re five hours behind here, and I saw my phone. I couldn’t believe we are actually sold out.
“I’m blown away by it to be honest. I never could have dreamt this really. A packed Croke Park, it’s going to be an incredible event. What a way to end my career.”
Taylor’s promoted Eddie Hearn was always confident that demand would outstrip supply, but even her was taken aback by how quickly the event sold out.
“This will be the greatest event in sporting history in Ireland,” said Hearn.
“I know it’s often promoter talk that we could have ‘sold the place out twice’, but a huge portion of those tickets were so highly in-demand. Genuinely, Katie could have sold another 50 or 60,000.
“It will be the greatest atmosphere of any boxing event I will have ever witnessed on September 5. Now Katie’s got to train hard and go out there to win this fight.”
Taylor is seeking to become an undisputed champion for third time by defending her WBO, WBA, IBF, and Ring Magazine titles and re-claiming the recently vacated WBC title.
The undefeated Pili is the mandatory challenger for the IBF light-welterweight title and the number one contender for the vacant WBC belt.