{"id":316561,"date":"2026-02-25T13:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T13:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/316561\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T13:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T13:56:08","slug":"taylor-to-retire-after-dublin-fight-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/316561\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor to retire after Dublin fight this summer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Katie Taylor&#8217;s farewell professional fight will take place in Dublin this summer, the 39-year-old has confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor is currently taking time away from the sport and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/sport\/boxing\/2026\/0120\/1554107-taylor-ready-to-bring-career-to-end-in-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">revealed in January that her career would come to an end in 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But she has gone a step further by acknowledging that Dublin will be the location for her finale, with the continuing hope it will be in Croke Park.<\/p>\n<p>That ambition has been discussed for several years, without coming to fruition.<\/p>\n<p>Should negotiations fail to lead to a fight in GAA headquarters, Aviva Stadium and 3Arena remain the other possible venues.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor told RT\u00c9 Sport: &#8220;We&#8217;re still trying to figure the details out but I do having one more fight this year. It&#8217;s kind of like my retirement fight. It has been an amazing journey, the whole lot of it, over these last 20 years.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have had the highs and low. It has been an incredible, remarkable career and I always wanted to end it here in Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s what we&#8217;re hoping and preparing for, to have one last fight. It is going to be an amazing celebration.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I just want to fight in Dublin to end my career. Obviously we&#8217;re still hoping for Croke Park, we&#8217;re hanging on to a bit of hope that it can happen. If it doesn&#8217;t happen there are plenty of options there. I have obviously fought in the 3Arena a couple of times, the Aviva Stadium is also there.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Croke Park would the top of the list.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Fighting my last fight in our most iconic arena, how special would that be? I think it would be absolutely remarkable if I was able to do that. I&#8217;m not sure if it is going to happen or not.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Either way, I&#8217;ll be ending my career here and I&#8217;m very, very excited about that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A finalised date or opponent has yet to be confirmed, but late summer is looking likely.<\/p>\n<p>With Croke Park set to be in action for the All-Ireland finals, it would point towards August when concerts and other sports take over at the stadium and the pitch is no longer in use for football and hurling.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor added: &#8220;I think the fight will happen in July or August some time. I&#8217;m not sure who the opponent is or what the date will be. I just know I&#8217;ll fight this year during the summer time and all the other details will be laid out in the coming weeks and months.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Either way I&#8217;m in the gym for whenever and whoever it will be. I&#8217;m staying sharp and ready.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Taylor is, in theory, undisputed super-lightweight world champion.<\/p>\n<p>The WBC has made her &#8220;Champion in Recess&#8221;, with Sandy Ryan winning the vacant belt last Saturday by beating Karla Ramos Zamora.<\/p>\n<p>Edith Soledad Matthysse also became interim WBA champion at the weekend, meaning she is also a possible opponent for Taylor.<\/p>\n<p>The 45-year-old upset Samantha Worthington in Detroit.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor may seek an opponent with a higher profile for her final fight, particularly if aiming to draw an attendance for a Croke Park occasion.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/sport\/boxing\/2025\/0712\/1523125-taylor-triumphant-in-trilogy-fight-against-serrano\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Bray boxer was last in action back in July when she completed a trio of victories over Amanda Serrano as she retained her undisputed super lightweight titles.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The veteran is keen to acknowledge the support received from the nation in her send-off fight.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Irish people have been so amazing to me throughout my whole career, they&#8217;ve gotten behind me during those Olympic Games and followed my career all the way through the professional ranks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It means so much to me. I&#8217;m just so grateful for that support and so grateful to be Irish.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Katie Taylor&#8217;s farewell professional fight will take place in Dublin this summer, the 39-year-old has confirmed. Taylor is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-316561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}