Katie Taylor's Farewell at Croke Park: A Historic Boxing Event
When Katie Taylor walks into Croke Park tomorrow night for what is expected to be her farewell, she will not be alone with history. It will be sitting a few rows back, in the Ard Chomhairle seats, wearing a Donegal accent and a lifetime of memories.
Paddy Doherty, the last Irish boxer to fight at Croke Park, will be among the 80,000 watching. Fifty‑four years after he boxed on the undercard of Muhammad Ali, he returns not as a fighter, but as a guest of the champion who has dragged Irish boxing into a different universe.
Doherty, from Ballyshannon in Co Donegal, has seen big nights. None bigger than 19 July 1972, when Ali faced Al “Blue” Lewis in Dublin in the only fight “the greatest” ever had on Irish soil. Ali stopped Lewis in the 11th round. Earlier that night, Doherty took care of Bobby Ruff of Wales inside two rounds.
That show drew 18,000 to Croke Park. It felt huge then. Tomorrow night will dwarf it.
The Ali event was the brainchild of Michael “Butty” Sugrue, the Kerry circus strongman turned promoter who hauled heavyweight boxing into Ireland during one of the darkest years of the Troubles. The Five Nations Championship had been abandoned, Scotland and Wales refusing to travel to Dublin. Yet Ali came, and with him came Doherty, a sharp light-middleweight with an emerging reputation.
Doherty’s own story began far from the bright lights. He started boxing in Ballyshannon at 11, climbed through the amateur ranks, and collected Ulster and Irish titles from juvenile right up to senior. In 1970, he won Commonwealth Games bronze in Edinburgh, representing Northern Ireland thanks to his Fermanagh-born father. As an amateur international, he compiled 15 wins with just a single defeat before turning professional and moving to London in 1971.
London brought him to Ali. He first appeared on an Ali undercard in October 1971 at the Royal Albert Hall, when Ali boxed Johnny “Gypsy” Frankham in an exhibition. When the Croke Park date was fixed for July 1972, Doherty got the call again.
He remembers the weigh-in at the Gresham Hotel. He remembers the chaos of the night itself even more.
“He tapped me on the head coming into the ring,” Doherty has recalled of Ali in Croke Park. Then came the surge. “Most of the crowd came over the barrier into the ring. Even the security and the guards couldn’t keep them back, just to get to Ali.”
Tomorrow night, the crush will be for Katie Taylor.
Professional boxing has not touched the Croke Park canvas since that Ali-Lewis bill. Taylor’s homecoming, against 29-year-old undefeated French contender Flora Pili, will change that in emphatic fashion. It is set to become the best-attended boxing match in Irish history.
Doherty almost couldn’t believe he would be there.
He tells how, not long ago, Taylor and her long-time manager Brian Peters arrived at his home in Donegal. Peters had phoned to say he was in the county. Then came the moment.
“That morning, my wife said ‘Katie Taylor’s after coming in past the house’. I couldn’t believe it,” Doherty said. The visit ended with an invitation to Croke Park for him and his family. “They invited the whole lot of us on Saturday night. It was a nice surprise. He said ‘I’ll see you in Croke Park’.”
For Doherty, who was forced to stop boxing in his 20s after injury, the symmetry is impossible to ignore: Ali in ’72, Taylor in 2026, and him in the middle of both.
He speaks about Taylor with the reverence of a man who knows what it takes to climb from small gyms to global stages.
“What she has done for Irish boxing all over the world (is remarkable). Out from that, she’s a real lady,” he said. He reserves special praise too for Peters, describing what the manager has done for the sport as “fantastic”.
As for the fight itself, Doherty believes Taylor’s vast experience will be the key against Pili’s youth and unbeaten record. He even has a tactical nugget ready if he gets a quiet word before the first bell.
“If I’m talking to her before the fight, I’ll tell her, ‘if she keeps coming to her, to tie her up in knots ... let the referee do the breaking and get back for boxing’,” he said.
That is a fighter talking to a fighter. Generations apart, speaking the same language.
Doherty’s verdict on Taylor’s place in Irish boxing is blunt and uncompromising. He does not see anyone matching her impact.
“I will be there (tomorrow night) for Katie Taylor; she’s so calm and nice ... a down-to-earth girl. What she’s done for boxing will never be done again,” he said.
Ali gave Croke Park its first taste of boxing greatness. Taylor is about to give it its last look at hers. The old pro from Ballyshannon will be there to watch the circle close.
