Katie Taylor primed for one last title shot in Dublin swansong

Sept 3 : Ireland's Katie Taylor will bring down the curtain on her career with a fight against Flora Pili of France at Dublin's Croke Park on Saturday in which she will try to achieve a fairytale finish to an extraordinary boxing story. 

Taylor, 40, has come a long way from covering her hair and pretending to be a boy to get fights in the junior ranks, and the showdown in front of thousands of fanatical Irish fans is her chance to bow out as the undisputed super-lightweight champion of the world. 

"I'm not sure if there's any other country in the world where 80,000 people would turn up for a female athlete," Taylor told reporters in Dublin. 

"I'm so grateful for the support, I'm blown away by it, to be honest. I want to put on a performance worthy of everyone's support over the years. This country has travelled around the world to watch me fight ... and they'll be with me again on Saturday night."

Of Ireland's 42 Olympic medals, 19 have come in the boxing ring, and Taylor's gold at the 2012 Olympics was a defining moment for the women's sport. Four years later she turned pro, amassing titles and professional purses that she could only have dreamed of when starting out. 

A native of the seaside town of Bray, just south of Dublin, Taylor tore through the professional ranks, using her speed and aggression to win the WBA title in her seventh professional fight, and she has barely looked back since. 

Together with Amanda Serrano, she became the first woman to headline a card at New York's Madison Square Garden when they fought in April 2022, with Taylor winning a fight for the ages in a razor-thin split decision. 

It has, however, not all been plain sailing. A gangland shooting at the Regency Hotel near Croke Park in which one man