EDDIE HEARN HAS vowed to deliver a Croke Park fight for Katie Taylor in what would be her final outing in the professional ring.

The Matchroom Boxing chairman, whose long-running negotiations with the venue last hit a wall in October 2023, has confirmed he is back in discussions with Croke Park in an effort to ensure that “one of the greatest athletes of all time gets her ultimate dream”.

Speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show on Monday, Hearn said that he was prepared to do “a shitload of work” to create a historic Irish sporting occasion, which would see boxing return to the home of GAA for the first time since Muhammad Ali defeated Al ‘Blue’ Lewis in 1972.

“I have to deliver Croke Park,” Hearn insisted. “I have to. And I’ve never said that before.”

When asked by Helwani if he was currently in discussions with Croke Park, and if a summer fight remained the target following Taylor’s recent comments regarding her impending retirement, Hearn replied: “Yes, absolutely. Yes.”

“I have to do it,” he added. “I have to do it. I have to find a way.

“I’ll never be able… [I wouldn't say] I’ll never be able to forgive myself, but if I don’t give this everything, if I don’t try my very hardest to make this a reality, I’m not doing Katie justice and I’m not doing myself justice — because this would be the greatest sporting event ever in the history of Ireland.”

A prospective Taylor fight at Croke Park has been one of the longest-running and yet slowest-moving Irish sporting sagas in modern times, with the idea first explored following the Bray woman’s first victory over Amanda Serrano at Madison Square Garden four years ago next month.

The primary sticking point on Matchroom’s side of the negotiations has been the cost, which would total over twice an equivalently sized event at Wembley Stadium in London, for example.

The concept appeared dead in the water as far back as October 2023, when Hearn made the naive decision to take on Croke Park Ltd commercial director Peter McKenna and the GAA in the court of public opinion. McKenna would later accuse Hearn of using “megaphone diplomacy”, while Taylor went on to fight at the 3Arena, Cowboys Stadium and Madison Square Garden once more.

The 39-year-old light-welterweight champion last month announced her intention to retire after one final fight in Dublin this summer, publicly campaigning once more for her farewell bout to take place at Croke Park.

And Hearn said on Monday that when Taylor’s manager, Brian Peters, recently sent him a mocked-up image of Taylor walking to the ring at Croke Park, “it made the hairs on my arms and my neck stand up”.

“All I could think about was watching Katie Taylor walk through the tunnel at Croke Park in front of 70,000 or 80,000 people and just literally floods of tears from an entire nation,” Hearn added.

“I phoned Brian and I went, ‘We’ve got to do it.’ So, it’s on me… and others! But there’s a huge part on me to try and make this happen.”

Hearn confirmed that talks with Croke Park have “picked back up again” after sleeping dogs were let lie for the bones of two and half years, and he indicated that Taylor’s two recent fights against Serrano in front of massive global audiences on Netflix could help to secure further financial backing from a broadcaster (most likely Matchroom’s streaming partner, DAZN) to get Croke Park over the line.

“I feel like this time there’s more momentum,” Hearn said. “The way I feel about it, I think Katie feels like that, the country feels like that.

“Now you’ve got the huge audience for [Mike] Tyson against [Jake] Paul, which she was the co-main event for, and the headliner for Taylor-Serrano III. So her stock, her star, has risen immensely, and I feel like now’s the time.

“I just think it would be a huge event. Who would deserve it more?”