Katie Taylor vs Flora Pili: Irish boxing legend reflects on historic Croke Park farewell - and pokes fun at Tyson Fury

Taylor (25-1-0, 6 KOs) is set to fight mandatory contender Flora Pili in front of a sell-out 82,000 crowd at Croke Park in Dublin in her last ever professional fight, and she has the chance to end her career as the undisputed lightweight champion.

Unlike some other professional boxers, Taylor has assured her fans she only intends to retire once:

"I think it's important to have a bit left when you bow out," Taylor told Sky Sports.

"You always have that itch, but I don't think I'm going to be the type of fighter who goes in and out of retirement like Tyson Fury does.

"How many times has he actually been retired - maybe five or six times?

"When it's my time to go out, I'm just going to enjoy the fruits of my labour."

A trailblazer for women's boxing, Taylor's career has spanned 25 years since her first amateur bout in 2001, featuring an Olympic gold medal, a headline fight at Madison Square Garden, and two separate reigns as an undisputed champion along the way.

The prospect of bowing out with a third undisputed title by beating an undefeated challenger at her home country's most iconic sporting venue is a prospect that even Taylor herself considers too good to be true.

"Croke Park is part of Irish culture, and I'm so proud of Croke Park myself.

"I said after my last fight: 'what could be bigger than headlining at Madison Square Garden?'

"The only thing that could be bigger now is headlining Croke Park, and I have the privilege now of actually doing that.

"It's been very, very difficult over the last few years, politically, to actually get this fight over the line, and here we are, and we're only maybe six weeks away from this fight, and I have a chance to end this amazing journey in our best arena.

"I'm actually nearly pinching myself sometimes when I actually talk about it."

Oleksandr Uysk - a figure of similar unassailable stature in men's boxing - chose to vacate his belts to choose his own 'final chapter' and avoid a fight against mandatory challenger Agit Kabayel earlier this year.

Taylor, in contrast, opted for the hard way out, with a fight against Pili (12-0-0, 2 KOs) perhaps the most challenging she could have accepted.

But that attitude to take on all comers is typical of Taylor, and exactly what has got her to this point in her career and endeared her to much of the boxing public.

"I didn't want one of those easy fights," Taylor said. "I wanted someone who was going to challenge me.

"I wanted a hungry young fighter and that's exactly who we have with Flora Pili. I know I have to be at my very, very best for this fight and I plan on putting on a career-best performance as well. That's what I'm training for.

"I love the fact I have a real threat in front of me. I don't think anybody could ever say, throughout my whole career, that I've ever ducked anybody - I think I've always fought the toughest fights."

Taylor's historic outing Croke Park underlines her status on hallowed ground as a boxer - it will be the first fight at the Gaelic games arena since Muhammad Ali's fought Al 'Blue' Lewis, 54 years ago in 1972.

"Ending my career in Croke Park is really is beyond anything I could have actually dreamt of.

"I dreamt of becoming an Olympic champion as a kid, and that dream came to pass. But these last 10 years [as a professional, I didn't even have the capacity to dream these things.

"I'm just so grateful that I've had this amazing career. The Irish people have supported me from the get-go, and I'm so grateful for that.

"I'm so proud that I'm Irish, I'm so proud I get to represent this amazing country, and I get a chance now to fight one more time in front of my home crowd."