{"id":495354,"date":"2026-06-12T03:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T03:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/495354\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T03:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T03:20:13","slug":"icon-katie-taylor-visits-donegal-man-who-boxed-in-croke-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/495354\/","title":{"rendered":"Icon Katie Taylor visits Donegal man who boxed in Croke Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

As she gets ready to headline the iconic stadium in September, Irish boxing legend Katie Taylor popped to rural Donegal this week to meet the last Irish boxer to go through the ropes at Croke Park.<\/p>\n

Ballyshannon native Paddy Doherty has the distinction of being involved in the last boxing bout at Croke Park.<\/p>\n

In July 1972, Doherty was on the bill as the great Muhammad Ali stopped Al \u2018Blue\u2019 Lewis in front of 20,000 people.<\/p>\n

It is 54 years since the sweet science graced Croke Park, but Taylor is set for a glittering swansong at a sold-out Croker in September. Taylor will take on Frenchwoman Flora Pili\u00a0 and attempt to sign off on her already-illustrious career as a three-time two-weigh champion.<\/p>\n

“This is going to be the most iconic moment of my whole career,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

Already, 40,000 tickets have been sold as Ireland prepares to give its golden girl a fitting send off – with general sale tickets only going on the market tomorrow (Friday).<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Taylor visited the home of Paddy Doherty in Ballintra. On the same bill as Ali in \u201972, Doherty took on Welshman Bobby Ruffe – and won with a second round stoppage.<\/p>\n

\u201cA wonderful afternoon celebrating boxing, friendship and the pioneers who helped shape the sport in Ireland,\u201d Aiken Promotions said.<\/p>\n

\n You may also be interested in\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Court<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Spraoi<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Doherty was 3-2 as he headed for the canvas to face Ruffe in a middleweight tussle.<\/p>\n

In the previous bout, Ali stopped Al \u2018Blue\u2019 Lewis in the 11th round of a 12-round fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe risked life and limb to make it to the sanctuary of the dressing rooms,\u201d the Irish Independent said of Ali\u2019s exit.<\/p>\n

\u201cSections of the crowed mobbed the former world champion as he made his way across the pitch from the ring.<\/p>\n

\u201cGardai battled with spectators the whole way from the ring to the tunnel under the Cusack Stand to clear a passage for Muhammad Ali as the crowd tried to get near him and it was just one other indication of the way he has captured the imagination of the Irish crowd since his arrival in Dublin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doherty was in the middle of it all as he set to work.<\/p>\n

In a previous interview with Donegal Daily, Doherty recalled: \u201cThe crowd was just phenomenal. Once the referee stepped in between Ali and Lewis, the crowd went mental,\u201d Doherty told Donegal Sport Hub in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was on just after Ali. I met him at the Gresham Hotel at the weigh-in and when I was on the way out to the ring he shook my hand and patted me on the head going by.<\/p>\n

\u201cAli had so much security around him. He was a gentleman and very down to earth. There was a great presence around him. You knew that you were in the company of greatness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doherty was as a Commonwealth Games bronze medalist in Edinburgh in 1970. He was also Irish champion in 1970 and 1971, having won Ulster titles in 1968, \u201970 and \u201971.<\/p>\n

The night wasn\u2019t quite the roaring success it had promised, however and Doherty said: \u201cIt was great to look forward to it, but I left Dublin that night with only \u00a3100 in my pocket when everyone else had got their cut out of the \u00a3400.<\/p>\n

A year earlier, Doherty saw Ali in an exhibition bout with his own sparring partner Johnny Frankham at the Royal Albert Hall in London.<\/p>\n

On his own big Croke Park moment, Doherty halted Ruff in round two, a cut opening on the Welshman and Paddy Finnegan, at the second examination, stopped it.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As she gets ready to headline the iconic stadium in September, Irish boxing legend Katie Taylor popped to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-495354","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\/495354","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=495354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}