Katie Taylor Targets Third Undisputed Title at Sold-Out 80,000 Croke Park

Katie Taylor (25-1, 6 KOs) concludes her career at Croke Park against Flora Pili, seeking the vacant WBC junior welterweight title to become a three-time undisputed champion.

Katie Taylor (25-1, 6 KOs) enters the ring at the sold-out 80,000-capacity Croke Park stadium in Dublin this Saturday to face France’s Flora Pili (12-0, 2 KOs). The 39-year-old Taylor currently holds the IBF, WBA, and WBO junior welterweight titles and seeks to claim the vacant WBC belt in this bout. A victory would make her an undisputed world champion for the third time, a feat currently matched only by Claressa Shields (18-0, 3 KOs) in women’s professional boxing. The venue sits just 15 miles from Taylor’s hometown of Bray, marking only her third professional appearance in Ireland.

Taylor’s career includes an Olympic gold medal from the 2012 London Games, where she competed at the ExCeL arena. She has won 19 world title fights and holds undisputed status in two different weight divisions. Her professional journey, which began after she disguised herself as a boy to compete at age 10, has seen her defeat top-10 opponents including Chantelle Cameron, Amanda Serrano, Natasha Jonas, Delfine Persoon, and Jessica McCaskill. The 2024 rematch against Serrano (49-4-1, 32 KOs) set a record as the most-watched women’s sporting event in U.S. history, averaging 74 million global viewers on Netflix, while their trilogy fight last year drew six million viewers.

Legacy and Attendance Records

Former rival Natasha Jonas, a two-weight world champion, highlighted the scale of this event by noting that Claressa Shields could not sell out an 80,000-seat stadium as a main event. Jonas observed a 70% increase in women’s boxing participation following Taylor’s performance at the 2012 Olympics. Taylor and Serrano previously made history in 2022 as the first women to headline a combat sports card at Madison Square Garden. Brian Peters, Taylor’s long-time manager, describes the fighter as an "extraordinary ordinary person" who achieved these milestones without relying on trash talk or prolific social media activity.

Lauren Price, the current WBC, WBA, and IBF world welterweight champion, was considered as a potential opponent for this Croke Park date earlier in 2026. Price credited Taylor’s 2012 World Championship win in China as a primary inspiration for her own career. Taylor herself noted that when she turned professional ten years ago, the women’s sport was virtually non-existent, yet she is now retiring as a global headliner on platforms like Netflix and DAZN.

Career Statistics and Milestones

Taylor won her first amateur world title 20 years ago when she was the sole female athlete at her local gym. Since moving her training base to Connecticut a decade ago, she has focused on chasing rivals in heavier weight classes. Her only professional defeat came against Chantelle Cameron, a result she later avenged to reclaim her standing. Taylor has stated that her primary goal was to become an undisputed world champion, a status she first achieved before the 2024-2026 run of stadium fights.

Final Walk at Croke Park

The 39-year-old athlete attributes her longevity and success to her Christian faith. As she prepares for the final chapter of a career that saw her headline the first Olympic Games to feature women's boxing, Taylor expressed that she intends to hold back tears during the walk to the ring. She views this 80,000-person event not as a sad conclusion, but as a moment of joy reflecting on a career that surpassed her 2019 expectations. The bout against the undefeated Pili serves as the final hurdle in Taylor's quest to redefine the highest standards of the sport.