Katie Taylor after winning the first Women's Boxing Lightweight Gold medal at the London Olympic Games, August 9, 2012. Photo credit: Unknown.

"I think that's real legacy, someone who left my sport in a better place,"

Katie Taylor, August 28, 2026 

I admit I have been a Katie Taylor fan-girl since I started writing about women's boxing in 2010 and even before that, when I was training at Gleason's Gym, and boxers such as Mischa Merz would talk about how amazing she was to watch in action.

In particular, Taylor's stance on the then-international boxing association, AIBA’s insistence in 2011 that women compete in skirts set a tone for her participation in a sport that has been uncomfortable, at best, with the inclusion of women in its ranks.

In an October 2011 interview with RTÉ's Ryan Tubridy, on the RTÉ One program, Taylor said, "I want the boxing to be the focus ... [not] what I'm wearing."

She also had no problem walking away from the sport if the rule requiring skirts passed. Her father, Peter Taylor, put it succinctly when he said, “She won’t box. Simple as that. We've got morals that go above marketing."

As a side note, writer Michael Rivest, reporting for the Albany Times Union, wrote that AIBA President, C. K. Wu wanted women to wear skirts so viewers could tell the girls from the boys in the ring. Apparently, with helmets, loose shirts, shorts, and, most importantly, though left unsaid, equal skills, some viewers couldn't tell the difference!

Oh my.

That notion of boxing abilities so fine honed as to belie the construct of boxing as a gendered sport really did give pause and has been Katie Taylor's story writ large: A girl from Bray who pretended to be a boy to compete and win because it was otherwise illegal for her to don the gloves in her native Ireland.

Years later, and after boxing became legal for women, in her same native Ireland, she was invited to serve as Dublin's Grand Marshal for its 2011 St. Patrick's Day parade.

That honor did not come from nowhere. Her boxing skill earned her gold at the 2010 World Amateur Championships in Barbados the previous year. This added to her collection of titles, including earlier world amateur and European championships, helped her play a pivotal role in securing women's boxing as an Olympic sport set to debut at the 2012 London Games. She was also an elite two-sport athlete. From 2006 to 2009, she played for Ireland's senior women's soccer team as a striker and forward, including scoring goals in 2007 and 2008 against teams from Hungary and Italy, respectively.

Speaking in a Sky Sports interview in 2019, Taylor said, "I did have a chance to get a football [soccer] scholarship over in America when I left school, but boxing was always my number one passion. I knew I had to choose between the two sports and I obviously chose boxing."

Her choice.

Her passion for boxing.

These are the hallmarks of the Katie Taylor we have come to revere and love. Plus her dogged determination to make history in a sport that had at first denied her a place.

Her pursuit became magic and legend, not only in her native Ireland, but around the world. And the world will come to Croke Park, Dublin's legendary stadium to watch Katie Taylor in her black gloves tinged with white or gold one last time.

Where all 82,300 seats will be filled to watch her boxing spirit soar for one last dance in the squared circle against a young, hungry fighter named Flora Pili (12-0, 2 KOs), who will no doubt box with heart and gumption for the right to be called undisputed women's super lightweight champion.

Katie Taylor faces off with Flora Pili at the announcement of Taylor's last fight set for Croke Park, Dublin, Ireland on September 5, 2026. Photo Credit: Inpho Sports Photography

If Taylor's active fighting career ends on the night of September 5, 2026, to the cheers and tears of the stadium fans and the millions who will watch on DAZN Boxing and RTÉ, her place in boxing and the legacy she has already given the sport will continue to make their mark for generations to come.

Just look at where professional women's boxing is now, a mere ten years after Taylor's heartbreaking loss at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. She licked her wounds, overcame her disappointments, and went on to sign with promoter Eddie Hearn's Matchroom Boxing as a professional boxer. Shortly thereafter, she won her first bout, a six-rounder, by TKO at 0:58 of the third round on November 26, 2016, against Polish fighter Karina Szmalenberg.

By Taylor's fifth fight in April 2017 and sporting a 4-0, 2-KOs record, she was on the undercard of the infamous Anthony Joshua - Wladimir Klitschko fight at Wembley Stadium, defeating the 5-0, 1-KO, German hopeful, Nina Meinke by TKO in the 7th round of their non-title ten-rounder.

Katie Taylor, DAZN Boxing launch, July 17, 2018, New York City,
Photo Credit: Malissa Smith

The stuff of legend is how she brought a generation of fighters with her. Fighters such as Olympian Natasha Jonas said Taylor helped her see that a boxing career was possible.

As a generational elite women's boxing amateur and Olympian, Taylor insisted on destiny. She knew she had to make her mark as a professional. She set out to show what it meant to fight the best. To model the daily workouts in the gym that are the chapter and verse of the work to come. The routine—dynamic stretching, jumping rope, shadow boxing, hitting the pads, sparring, hitting the heavy bag, cool-down rounds on the speed bag, wind sprints, weights, more stretching, pool work, road work, shadow boxing, and slipping under the shower head after an ice plunge bath—becomes the tool of passion. Being in the ring is the ultimate experience. Facing an opponent with equal skill and desire demands performance. It means making a mark. It means being of the ring, in the ring, and part of the boxing life that rises above gender and the other prefixes that mean nothing once the fight begins and there are two or three minutes to outbox an opponent, round by round, until an arm is raised at the end of the bout.

Taylor gave us many dances.

She became a lightweight champion, boxing the likes of Eva Wahlstrom, Natasha Jonas, and Jennifer Han.

Then an undisputed champion, fighting the Belgian title holder, Delfine Persoon, and winning in a very close contest by split decision.

For her next dance, Taylor became a two-weight champion, winning a super lightweight title after defeating Christina Linardatou.

Amanda Serrano (R) boxing Katie Taylor (L) fought the first women's boxing main event at the Mecca of boxing, Madison Square Garden on April 30, 2022, in front of a sold-out crowd for the undisputed world lightweight championship. 

In the first bout of what became a legendary women's boxing trilogy, Taylor and her dance partner, Amanda Serrano, thrilled the world at the Mecca of boxing, Madison Square Garden. They turned their women's boxing premier main event into a fight for the ages before a sold-out crowd that openly shed tears at the brilliance of their efforts.

In another first, in May 2023, Taylor chose Chantelle Cameron as her dance partner for her first professional fight in Ireland and the chance to be called undisputed super lightweight champion. It was not her day, as she suffered her first professional defeat, but six months later she battled back to win the crown.

She had two more dances with Serrano in 2024 and 2025 bringing her to a 25-1, 6-KOs professional record to add to her 170-10-1, 35-KOs, amateur career.

Turning 40, however, and still full of fight, she had one more dream to fulfill: to return to Ireland and fight for an undisputed championship at Dublin's legendary Croke Park.

That dream, and the chance to say goodbye to the crowd, to the boxing community, to her fans, and to the world, is the stuff that dreams are made of and will be realized before the people who love her best.

Since she announced her pending retirement, many have spoken of her achievements, her role as an inspirational figure, and, importantly, her faith as signs of her dedication to ensuring women have a place in boxing.

What I've always loved most about Katie Taylor is the "dog" in her. That rascally spirit that takes over from time to time and reminds us that she is still that girl from Bray who loves nothing more than to mix it up and scrap.

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Malissa Smith is the author of A History of Women’s Boxing (2014) and The Promise of Women’s Boxing: A Momentous New Era for the Sweet Science (2025). She writes and speaks frequently about the sport.