THAT KATIE TAYLOR intends to retire following her next fight, and that her dream remains for that fight to take place at Croke Park, is hardly news.
Taylor has already indicated on several occasions in recent months that 2026 would be her final year in the sport. She’s now married with five stepchildren, the youngest of whom is 11, and so it’s time to become a new kind of superhero after an unthinkably successful 25 years in the competitive ring.
Taylor has had her foot out the door ever since she put a bow on her trilogy with Amanda Serrano at Madison Square Garden last July, a victory after which she paced the streets of New York in the wee hours pondering whether there were any worlds left to conquer.
She had earlier told the post-fight press conference that she would consider retirement, which was a first. Usually, when a boxer starts to contemplate calling it quits out loud, it’s best that they follow it up.
But Taylor’s last performance, a technical masterclass against Serrano in which her mobility appeared virtually as impressive as it ever had been, proved once again that she has sound instincts in relation to how much she has left in the tank athletically.
When she didn’t call time on her career in the months that followed, a last dance became inevitable. She confirmed today that she intends to fight for the final time this summer in Dublin, a celebration and a farewell before she sails into civilian life with her new family in Connecticut.
Taylor’s longstanding ambition, of course, is to take centre-stage at Croke Park, which is the only item on her boxing bucket list left unticked.
It has become one of Irish sport’s longest-running yet slowest-moving sagas: it’s further away from happening today than it was when it was first broached in 2022. Indeed, there has rarely been a sports story covered so extensively in Ireland which has yielded so few developments.
And the distinct likelihood is that Katie Taylor will not fight in Croke Park for the same reasons it didn’t happen in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025: there is insufficient will among the people who can make it happen to actually make it happen.
The primary sticking point has always been money: between rent, security fees and logistics, the cost to stage an event at Croke Park amounts to over €1 million, which is more than twice the cost of staging an equivalent event at Wembley Stadium in London or the Principality Stadium in Wales. Taylor’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, has always basically felt that the GAA are taking him for a ride, whereas Croke Park Ltd and its commercial director Peter McKenna can rightly point towards the several concerts that take place at the stadium annually for roughly the same cost.
Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing outfit can obviously afford to pay the fee, but the promoter himself is answerable to shareholders and hasn’t built on his father’s success by pissing away money willy-nilly.
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Consequently, he has made past efforts to seek financial assistance from the Irish government to stage what Taylor’s team believe would be a national sporting event, akin to an All-Ireland final for which the government pays the security costs.
Then-sports minister Jack Chambers was, as far back as 2022, willing to play ball on something similar for a Taylor fight at Croke Park, but an inconveniently timed cabinet shuffle put the kibosh on all progress made to that point. That Hearn then went public with his request for state funding, and that it irked The Irish Taxpayer to such an extent, has caused the political will behind the concept to diminish in the years since.
Hearn, just like Croke Park director Peter McKenna, is entitled to look after his bottom line, and the government routinely makes contributions towards all kinds of sporting events which don’t annoy The Taxpayer because they simply don’t hear about it. His mistake was making so much noise about it: a posh, rich English fella trying to take on the GAA in Ireland’s court of public opinion was scarcely advisable.
Whether or not Hearn would even possess the will to make Croke Park happen in 2026 is another matter. Conor Benn, one of Matchroom’s three flagship boxers on this side of the pond along with Taylor and Anthony Joshua, last week defected to Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing outfit – this is arguably not the time to take a punt on a massive stadium show in a country in which he already knows it’s incredibly expensive to do business.
The 42′s understanding is that, with the proposed ticket prices starting at around the €40 mark, Matchroom would break even on a Croke Park fight only if they sold 55,000 tickets. The cream would be in the remaining 20-25,000 seats, which is why the Aviva Stadium, while cheaper to rent, has never been properly explored as a potential destination.
The prospective attendance for a Taylor fight at Croke Park is often subject to debate. On the one hand, she has twice sold out Madison Square Garden – with some Puerto Rican help, granted – fully 5,000 kilometres across the Atlantic; indeed, somewhere in the region of 5,000 people travelled over for that first Serrano fight in 2022, which illustrates Taylor’s pull. It would stand to reason, then, that a fight at Croke Park billed as her very last, if priced reasonably and marketed correctly, could sell out or at least come close.
On the other hand, Ireland, for all its boxing success, is not a country steeped in the tradition of attending outdoor boxing events: Croke Park was barely a quarter full when Muhammad Ali fought there in 1972. That was a very different economic time, certainly, but Hearn could be forgiven for being spooked by the only real precedent.
Funnily enough, there is a world in which Chantelle Cameron – who has no real grá for Taylor after suffering defeat in their November 2023 rematch at the 3Arena – rides in to save the day.
It may prove convenient that the Englishwoman, who inflicted a first professional defeat on Taylor during their original bout in Dublin, is the only viable opponent for Croke Park. Having left Matchroom disgruntled with what she perceived as Hearn’s favouritism towards Taylor during their two bouts, Cameron is now promoted by Jake Paul and MVP Promotions. Perhaps MVP, with the help of their broadcast partner Netflix, could contribute towards the costs of Croke Park in order to secure the rubber match for their charge.
That much remains fanciful for now, as does the very concept of Taylor taking to the ring on Jones’ Road at all.
She should absolutely continue to push for it. Katie Taylor didn’t become who she is by listening to people who told her she couldn’t do things. She has nothing to lose in campaigning for Croker. Her management team, steered by Brian Peters, will doubtless pull out every stop available to them once more. It’s not impossible that they get it over the line this time, but it remains as improbable as ever.
The most likely outcome is that Taylor will compete in a farewell bout at the 3Arena, already the scene of one of her greatest glories. Beers and tears will flow and a truly great Irish sportsperson will add one last page to her endless catalogue of hair-raising occasions.
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Katie Taylor fighting at Croke Park remains as improbable as ever, but it's not impossible
THAT KATIE TAYLOR intends to retire following her next fight, and that her dream remains for that fight to take place at Croke Park, is hardly news.
Taylor has already indicated on several occasions in recent months that 2026 would be her final year in the sport. She’s now married with five stepchildren, the youngest of whom is 11, and so it’s time to become a new kind of superhero after an unthinkably successful 25 years in the competitive ring.
Taylor has had her foot out the door ever since she put a bow on her trilogy with Amanda Serrano at Madison Square Garden last July, a victory after which she paced the streets of New York in the wee hours pondering whether there were any worlds left to conquer.
She had earlier told the post-fight press conference that she would consider retirement, which was a first. Usually, when a boxer starts to contemplate calling it quits out loud, it’s best that they follow it up.
But Taylor’s last performance, a technical masterclass against Serrano in which her mobility appeared virtually as impressive as it ever had been, proved once again that she has sound instincts in relation to how much she has left in the tank athletically.
When she didn’t call time on her career in the months that followed, a last dance became inevitable. She confirmed today that she intends to fight for the final time this summer in Dublin, a celebration and a farewell before she sails into civilian life with her new family in Connecticut.
Taylor’s longstanding ambition, of course, is to take centre-stage at Croke Park, which is the only item on her boxing bucket list left unticked.
It has become one of Irish sport’s longest-running yet slowest-moving sagas: it’s further away from happening today than it was when it was first broached in 2022. Indeed, there has rarely been a sports story covered so extensively in Ireland which has yielded so few developments.
And the distinct likelihood is that Katie Taylor will not fight in Croke Park for the same reasons it didn’t happen in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025: there is insufficient will among the people who can make it happen to actually make it happen.
The primary sticking point has always been money: between rent, security fees and logistics, the cost to stage an event at Croke Park amounts to over €1 million, which is more than twice the cost of staging an equivalent event at Wembley Stadium in London or the Principality Stadium in Wales. Taylor’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, has always basically felt that the GAA are taking him for a ride, whereas Croke Park Ltd and its commercial director Peter McKenna can rightly point towards the several concerts that take place at the stadium annually for roughly the same cost.
Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing outfit can obviously afford to pay the fee, but the promoter himself is answerable to shareholders and hasn’t built on his father’s success by pissing away money willy-nilly.
Consequently, he has made past efforts to seek financial assistance from the Irish government to stage what Taylor’s team believe would be a national sporting event, akin to an All-Ireland final for which the government pays the security costs.
Then-sports minister Jack Chambers was, as far back as 2022, willing to play ball on something similar for a Taylor fight at Croke Park, but an inconveniently timed cabinet shuffle put the kibosh on all progress made to that point. That Hearn then went public with his request for state funding, and that it irked The Irish Taxpayer to such an extent, has caused the political will behind the concept to diminish in the years since.
Hearn, just like Croke Park director Peter McKenna, is entitled to look after his bottom line, and the government routinely makes contributions towards all kinds of sporting events which don’t annoy The Taxpayer because they simply don’t hear about it. His mistake was making so much noise about it: a posh, rich English fella trying to take on the GAA in Ireland’s court of public opinion was scarcely advisable.
Whether or not Hearn would even possess the will to make Croke Park happen in 2026 is another matter. Conor Benn, one of Matchroom’s three flagship boxers on this side of the pond along with Taylor and Anthony Joshua, last week defected to Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing outfit – this is arguably not the time to take a punt on a massive stadium show in a country in which he already knows it’s incredibly expensive to do business.
The 42′s understanding is that, with the proposed ticket prices starting at around the €40 mark, Matchroom would break even on a Croke Park fight only if they sold 55,000 tickets. The cream would be in the remaining 20-25,000 seats, which is why the Aviva Stadium, while cheaper to rent, has never been properly explored as a potential destination.
The prospective attendance for a Taylor fight at Croke Park is often subject to debate. On the one hand, she has twice sold out Madison Square Garden – with some Puerto Rican help, granted – fully 5,000 kilometres across the Atlantic; indeed, somewhere in the region of 5,000 people travelled over for that first Serrano fight in 2022, which illustrates Taylor’s pull. It would stand to reason, then, that a fight at Croke Park billed as her very last, if priced reasonably and marketed correctly, could sell out or at least come close.
On the other hand, Ireland, for all its boxing success, is not a country steeped in the tradition of attending outdoor boxing events: Croke Park was barely a quarter full when Muhammad Ali fought there in 1972. That was a very different economic time, certainly, but Hearn could be forgiven for being spooked by the only real precedent.
Funnily enough, there is a world in which Chantelle Cameron – who has no real grá for Taylor after suffering defeat in their November 2023 rematch at the 3Arena – rides in to save the day.
It may prove convenient that the Englishwoman, who inflicted a first professional defeat on Taylor during their original bout in Dublin, is the only viable opponent for Croke Park. Having left Matchroom disgruntled with what she perceived as Hearn’s favouritism towards Taylor during their two bouts, Cameron is now promoted by Jake Paul and MVP Promotions. Perhaps MVP, with the help of their broadcast partner Netflix, could contribute towards the costs of Croke Park in order to secure the rubber match for their charge.
That much remains fanciful for now, as does the very concept of Taylor taking to the ring on Jones’ Road at all.
She should absolutely continue to push for it. Katie Taylor didn’t become who she is by listening to people who told her she couldn’t do things. She has nothing to lose in campaigning for Croker. Her management team, steered by Brian Peters, will doubtless pull out every stop available to them once more. It’s not impossible that they get it over the line this time, but it remains as improbable as ever.
The most likely outcome is that Taylor will compete in a farewell bout at the 3Arena, already the scene of one of her greatest glories. Beers and tears will flow and a truly great Irish sportsperson will add one last page to her endless catalogue of hair-raising occasions.
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Boxing Katie Taylor