There are boxing events built around championships, others built around rivalries, and then there are nights that mean something far beyond the result in the ring.
Taylor vs. Pili: Once Upon a Time belongs firmly in the third category.
On September 5, 2026, Katie Taylor will walk into Dublin’s Croke Park for what has officially been announced as the final professional fight of her remarkable career. Standing across from her will be undefeated French contender Flora Pili, a fighter arriving in Ireland with a 12-0 professional record and the opportunity of a lifetime.
More than 80,000 spectators are expected to fill one of Ireland’s most famous sporting venues. For Taylor, it is the homecoming that boxing fans have talked about for years. For Pili, it is a chance to step onto the biggest stage of her career. And for Irish boxing, it will be a night unlikely to be repeated anytime soon.
The event’s name, “Once Upon a Time,” could hardly be more appropriate.
Katie Taylor Finally Gets Croke Park
For much of Katie Taylor’s professional career, a fight at Croke Park felt like the logical final destination.
Taylor has fought at Madison Square Garden, Wembley Arena, AT&T Stadium and major venues around the world, but bringing one of boxing’s biggest nights back to Ireland’s national sporting stage remained unfinished business.
That changes on September 5.
Croke Park is primarily known as the home of the Gaelic Athletic Association and one of the great stadiums in Irish sport. Boxing has rarely occupied its enormous stands. In fact, the last professional boxing event staged there was more than half a century ago, when Muhammad Ali fought Alvin “Blue” Lewis in 1972.
Taylor’s farewell therefore represents more than simply another stadium boxing show. It brings professional boxing back to Croke Park after 54 years, with an Irish fighter at the center of the event.
The scale of the occasion is fitting for an athlete whose influence on boxing in Ireland is difficult to overstate.
The Final Chapter of an Extraordinary Career
Taylor enters the event with a professional record of 25 wins and one defeat, including six victories by knockout.
Those numbers alone do not really tell the story.
Long before she became one of the biggest names in professional boxing, Taylor helped change what was possible for women in the amateur sport. She won Olympic gold at London 2012 and became one of the most recognizable athletes in Ireland.
After turning professional in 2016, the transition was remarkably quick. Taylor won the WBA lightweight championship in only her seventh professional appearance and eventually collected the major belts in the division.
She later became undisputed at super lightweight as well.
Perhaps her most important professional rivalry came against Amanda Serrano. Their first meeting at Madison Square Garden in 2022 became the first women’s boxing match to headline the famous New York arena. The significance of that night extended far beyond Taylor and Serrano themselves: it proved that a women’s boxing match could headline one of the world’s most famous venues and attract global attention.
Two more fights followed.
Taylor defeated Serrano again at AT&T Stadium in 2024 before the pair returned to Madison Square Garden for their trilogy fight in July 2025. Taylor won that contest by majority decision, moving her professional record to 25-1.
Now comes fight number 27 — and, according to Taylor and her team, the last one.
More Than a Ceremonial Farewell
With so much attention surrounding Taylor’s retirement, it would be easy to treat September 5 as little more than a celebration.
The actual fight tells a different story.
This is not an exhibition and Pili has not been brought to Dublin simply to participate in Taylor’s goodbye.
Taylor and Pili will contest the Undisputed World Super Lightweight Championship, with the major titles in the division on the line. Taylor currently owns the WBA, WBO, IBF and Ring Magazine championships, while the vacant WBC title adds another layer to the occasion.
At 40 years old, Taylor is finishing her career in a legitimate world championship fight rather than choosing a low-risk farewell.
That makes the concept behind “Once Upon a Time” considerably more interesting. There will undoubtedly be tributes, emotion and celebration throughout Croke Park, but when the opening bell sounds, the ceremony stops.
Who Is Flora Pili?
Outside dedicated European boxing circles, Flora Pili may still be an unfamiliar name.
That is likely to change after this event.
The French super lightweight enters the biggest fight of her career with a perfect 12-0 professional record, including two knockouts. She has gradually worked her way through domestic and European competition rather than being rushed toward the highest level.
Pili turned professional in 2019 and has since collected French, European and international titles during her rise through the 140-pound division.
She captured the European super lightweight championship in 2023 and added further regional success before defeating Jelena Janicijevic in December 2025. She has also held the IBO super lightweight title and enters the Taylor fight as a recognized contender at world level.
At 29, Pili is considerably younger than Taylor, but she will be entering a completely different environment from anything she has experienced previously as a professional.
There is a major difference between fighting for championships in smaller European venues and walking into a packed Croke Park opposite arguably the most celebrated athlete in Irish boxing history.
That contrast is one of the most interesting elements of the main event without needing to turn the discussion into a prediction.
For Taylor, this is the final night of an enormous career.
For Pili, it could be the night that defines hers.
An Atmosphere Unlike a Normal Boxing Event
The crowd may become as much a part of the story as the fighters themselves.
Matchroom expects around 80,000 spectators at Croke Park. When Taylor begins her ring walk, the noise inside the stadium should be unlike anything seen at an Irish boxing event in decades.
Taylor has spent much of her professional career fighting away from home, with Irish supporters travelling to London, New York and other cities to watch her.
She finally returned to fight professionally in Ireland in 2023 when she faced Chantelle Cameron at Dublin’s 3Arena. Taylor lost their first meeting before winning the rematch six months later.
Croke Park, however, has always represented something bigger.
Taylor herself has described fighting there as the final piece of her career and thanked Irish supporters who travelled around the world to follow her fights. She has also said that inspiring another generation through the event would be among the most meaningful parts of her legacy.
This time, nobody has to follow Taylor across the Atlantic.
The biggest show is coming home.
Dave Allen vs. Thomas Carty Adds Heavyweight Interest
The main event naturally dominates the promotion, but Matchroom has put together an undercard designed heavily around Irish fighters and personalities.
One of the most recognizable names is British heavyweight Dave Allen, who faces Ireland’s Thomas Carty.
Allen has spent years building a reputation as one of British boxing’s most popular heavyweights. His career has featured everything from major opportunities to unexpected comebacks, and his aggressive, straightforward style has made him a familiar figure to UK boxing audiences.
Carty gives the Croke Park crowd an obvious local interest.
The Dublin heavyweight has built his professional career largely behind a powerful style and enters the biggest stage of his career with the chance to perform in front of a massive home audience.
Heavyweight boxing brings its own kind of tension to any card, and Allen against Carty should provide a very different dynamic from the technical championship contest at the top of the bill.
Paddy Donovan Meets Tyrone McKenna
There is also plenty of Irish rivalry further down the card.
Limerick welterweight Paddy Donovan faces Belfast veteran Tyrone McKenna in one of the evening’s most interesting all-Irish matchups.
Donovan has established himself among Ireland’s leading welterweights and currently sits high in the IBF picture. McKenna, meanwhile, has spent years fighting tough opposition and has rarely been involved in uneventful contests.
Their meeting provides something the main event cannot: two fighters from the same island competing for position in a crowded division with considerably less ceremony surrounding them.
For Irish boxing fans arriving early at Croke Park, this could be one of the fights that gives the card some genuine depth before the stadium begins preparing for Taylor’s entrance.
Molly McCann Continues Her Boxing Career
Another familiar face on the undercard comes from outside traditional boxing.
Former UFC fighter Molly McCann will continue the early stages of her professional boxing career against Sylwia Doligala.
McCann retired from mixed martial arts before making the move into professional boxing, where she has quickly accumulated experience. She enters the Croke Park event unbeaten at 4-0.
There is also a family connection to the main event: McCann is Katie Taylor’s cousin.
That adds another small piece to a card built heavily around the celebration of Irish combat sports.
McCann is already accustomed to major crowds and high-pressure environments from her UFC career, but boxing at Croke Park on Taylor’s retirement card is a very different kind of occasion.
More Irish Talent Across the Card
The rest of the lineup continues the same theme.
Undefeated super middleweights Taylor Bevan and Emmet Brennan are scheduled to meet, while unbeaten super bantamweights Joe McGrail and Matthew Boreland also feature.
Paul Ryan and Paddy Gallagher add another Dublin-versus-Belfast matchup, while prospects including Adam Olaniyan and Bobbi Flood are scheduled to appear during the event.
Rather than loading the undercard entirely with international names, the promoters have clearly treated Croke Park as an opportunity to showcase Irish boxing beneath Taylor.
That approach makes sense.
September 5 is being promoted as a celebration not only of one fighter, but of the influence Taylor has had on Irish boxing over the course of more than two decades. Putting younger Irish fighters in front of tens of thousands of spectators gives the night a connection to whatever comes next.
Taylor vs. Pili Fight Card
The currently announced lineup includes:
Katie Taylor vs. Flora Pili – Undisputed Super Lightweight World Championship
Dave Allen vs. Thomas Carty – Heavyweight
Paddy Donovan vs. Tyrone McKenna – Welterweight
Taylor Bevan vs. Emmet Brennan – Super Middleweight
Joe McGrail vs. Matthew Boreland – Super Bantamweight
Molly McCann vs. Sylwia Doligala
Paul Ryan vs. Paddy Gallagher
Adam Olaniyan vs. TBA
Bobbi Flood vs. Jack Swallow
Fight cards remain subject to change until fight night.
When Is Taylor vs. Pili?
Taylor vs. Pili: Once Upon a Time takes place on Saturday, September 5, 2026, at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland.
Matchroom lists the preliminary portion of the show from 4:00 PM local time, with the main fight-night broadcast beginning at 7:00 PM. Taylor and Pili are expected to enter the ring later in the evening, depending on the duration of the preceding fights.
The event will be shown internationally on DAZN.
The fight also concludes a full week of events around Dublin. Public workouts, press conferences and a public weigh-in at Trinity College are all part of the buildup before the fighters finally arrive at Croke Park on Saturday night.
“Once Upon a Time” Is About More Than One Fight
There will be plenty to discuss once Taylor and Pili are standing opposite each other inside the ring.
But the importance of this event does not depend entirely on what happens during those ten rounds.
Katie Taylor helped move women’s boxing from the margins of the sport to Madison Square Garden main events, major streaming audiences and stadium-level events. Her career crossed several eras of women’s boxing and, in many ways, helped create the commercial environment the current generation now competes in.
There is something appropriately circular about ending that career in Dublin.
Taylor began boxing in Ireland at a time when opportunities for female fighters were extremely limited. Decades later, her final professional fight is expected to bring roughly 80,000 people into Ireland’s largest stadium to watch two women contest a world championship.
That transformation is bigger than any belt.
Flora Pili will not be coming to Ireland to participate in someone else’s retirement ceremony, of course. She arrives undefeated, carrying ambitions of her own and facing the biggest opportunity of her professional career.
That is exactly what gives the event its sporting credibility.
Croke Park can celebrate Katie Taylor before the fight and after it. Between the bells, Taylor vs. Pili remains a world championship boxing match.
And that combination of history, emotion and legitimate competition is what makes “Once Upon a Time” one of the most significant boxing events of 2026.
Whatever eventually happens inside Croke Park, September 5 marks the end of an era.
One of boxing’s most influential careers is coming home for its final chapter.
