![\"Katie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/emotional-katie-taylor-gears-up-for-last-fight-in-cathedral-of-irish-sport.jpg\")
Katie Taylor will fight Flora Pili. Photo: Damien Eagers\/PA.<\/p>\nKatie Taylor has said the last fight of her professional career in front of a home crowd will be a \u201cdream come true\u201d.<\/p>\n
The details of the sporting spectacle were confirmed during an emotional press conference at the headquarters of the Gaelic games, Croke Park \u2013 which Taylor called the \u201ccathedral of Irish sport\u201d.<\/p>\n
Taylor, 39, is to take on 28-year-old Frenchwoman Flora Pili on September 5th in the stadium that has a capacity of more than 80,000.<\/p>\n
Taylor said she had \u201cgoosebumps\u201d at the thought of fighting in the \u201ciconic\u201d Dublin stadium and hearing the roars of \u201cole, ole, ole\u201d from the home crowd.<\/p>\n
The Bray native also has the chance to finish her career with all boxing titles back in in her grasp.<\/p>\n
Katie Taylor will fight Flora Pili. Photo: Damien Eagers\/PA.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was really an impossible dream a few years ago, and here we are. This is going to be the most iconic moment of my whole career,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said that she went to Croke Park as a child to see all-Ireland final clashes and saw Bruce Springsteen perform in 2024, and that it would be \u201camazing\u201d to be the athlete in the stadium in a few months.<\/p>\n
She said she wanted a \u201creal challenge\u201d for her last fight and Pili would be a \u201cdangerous opponent\u201d, with Pili raising her eyebrows at the compliment as it was translated to her.<\/p>\n
Taylor\u2019s manager, Brian Peters, got emotional speaking about the first time he, Taylor and her mother Bridget went to sports promoter Eddie Hearn\u2019s offices 10 years ago.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWe went into that day, Eddie, I don\u2019t think we really had a plan. We didn\u2019t know where we were going, we didn\u2019t know how we\u2019re going to do it, and after Katie spoke to you, just with the conviction that she showed, I think you believed we had something very special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hearn paid tribute to Taylor\u2019s tenacity and commitment to push boundaries in women\u2019s boxing, adding that he would be \u201castonished\u201d if there was a dry eye in Croke Park come September.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe support that we have had and the momentum that we have had from the people of Ireland is what has made this happen,\u201d he said, billing it as a special day in Irish sporting history.<\/p>\n
Clinching Croke Park as the venue of the sporting spectacle was said to be \u201cnot easy\u201d by both Mr Peters and Mr Hearn, but the stadium\u2019s commercial director, Peter McKenna, paid tribute to Taylor as \u201cwithout doubt the greatest Irish sportsperson of all time\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re mighty proud that we have this fight in Croke Park, it\u2019s going to be fantastic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
![\"Katie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/katie-taylor-at-croke-park-e1780660689785.jpg\")
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