Katie Taylor has done it all. Well, nearly all.<\/p>\n
Olympic gold. Five amateur world titles. Nine major pro belts, including undisputed champion status at two weights. Settling a generational rivalry with fellow great Amanda Serrano and beating every woman she has faced in a professional boxing ring.<\/p>\n
For most people, it would be more than enough. But Taylor, at 40, wanted one thing more than anything else before she could contentedly call time on perhaps the greatest female boxing career of them all.<\/p>\n
She had long wanted to box at Dublin\u2019s Croke Park, the iconic \u2013 and enormous \u2013 ancestral home of Irish sport.<\/p>\n
Taylor had called for it for years, even while fighting in a variety of other bucket-list boxing venues, from London\u2019s Wembley to New York\u2019s Madison Square Garden, and elsewhere across the UK, US and Ireland.<\/p>\n
It might have felt at times as though it would never happen, but it was worth the wait. It will now happen at the best, and most poignant, time of all.<\/p>\n
More than 80,000 fans are expected to fill Croke Park as it hosts the final fight of Taylor\u2019s career. She could not have asked for a grander, or more personal, stage for her swansong.<\/p>\n
Known as an often-reluctant interviewee, Taylor is perhaps now aware that the spotlight will only shine on her one more time, and as such is making the most of the media rounds. She has always been in high demand, and is now more so than ever, but this time she\u2019s glad of the attention as she traverses Ireland to meet fans and press,<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are actually on a bus doing a road trip across the country. It\u2019s been crazy,\u201d she tells Boxing News amid a whistlestop tour of the Emerald Isle.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut this is what I always wanted,\u201d she adds of the Croke Park date. The question of when it would happen, or if it would ever happen at all, has been a constant narrative over the past few years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t believe we actually got it over the line. [Promoter] Eddie [Hearn], [trainer] Brian (Peters) and the rest of the team have worked so hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been amazing. It\u2019s been a whirlwind few days, just to see the buzz about the place.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I have got a fight to prepare for now. I am looking forward to getting my head down and to start training for the fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have had doubts along the way. There were times when I didn\u2019t think it [a fight at Croke Park] would happen. So, to get the phone call from Brian\u00a0saying\u00a0that all the contracts were signed and it was a done deal, it\u2019s been surreal, I\u2019m delighted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been envisioning my ringwalk and the crowd. It\u2019s going to be very special \u2013 and emotional at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a case of all or nothing for Taylor. She hasn\u2019t fought since last July, when she closed out her trilogy with Amanda Serrano with a third victory over the Puerto Rican legend.<\/p>\n
This time it came without the doubt that surrounded the first two fights in their perhaps unrivalled series. Serrano had pushed her oh-so close twice, but Taylor pulled away in the concluding contest, with one of the best performances of her career securing a definitive victory.<\/p>\n
It was rivalry that started and ended at Madison Square Garden. Their first fight was the first time women had headlined MSG. It was perhaps the most important achievement in the life and career of a woman who had arguably broke more ground for the female sport than anyone else.<\/p>\n
Taylor only had one dream remaining. If Croke Park couldn\u2019t be delivered, she would have walked away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember saying to Eddie and Brian after the last fight, it\u2019s either Croke Park or nothing for me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was ready to hang up the gloves. For me, there was really nothing else to chase after. The only thing for me to achieve was Croke Park.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taylor would have been forgiven if she had taken a far safer fight for her farewell outing. But that isn\u2019t the Katie Taylor way.<\/p>\n