Katie Taylor's Last Dance at Croke Park: A Historic Night

On Saturday night, when Katie Taylor walks out into a roaring Croke Park for what is billed as her last dance, one man in the stands will know exactly how that ring feels under the lights and the weight of history.

Paddy Doherty has been there before.

The Ballyshannon native, now in his seventies, will take his place in the Ard Chomhairle seats with his family, invited by Taylor’s team to witness Irish boxing come full circle. He was the last Irish boxer to fight at Croke Park, 54 years ago, on the undercard of Muhammad Ali’s only bout on Irish soil.

On 19 July 1972, Ali faced Al “Blue” Lewis in front of 18,000 spectators. The great showman stopped Lewis in the 11th round. Earlier that night, Doherty had done his own damage, stopping Welshman Bobby Ruff in the second round. Different weights, different careers, same stage. The old stadium still remembers.

That Ali event, staged by Kerry strongman-turned-promoter Michael “Butty” Sugrue, dropped a circus of colour and noise into a country gripped by one of its darkest years. The Five Nations Championship had been abandoned, with Scotland and Wales refusing to travel to Dublin. Croke Park, for one night, became a window to another world.

Doherty never forgot it. And this week, Taylor reminded him that Irish boxing hadn’t forgotten him either.

He was at home in Donegal when the doorbell rang. Brian Peters, Taylor’s long-time manager, had called to say he was in the area. Then came the real shock.

“That morning, my wife said ‘Katie Taylor’s after coming in past the house’. I couldn’t believe it,” Doherty recalled. Taylor and Peters sat with him, talked boxing, talked legacy, and then handed him an invitation for Saturday’s show. The whole family, brought back to Croke Park by the woman who changed the sport.

“What she has done for Irish boxing all over the world is remarkable,” he said. “Out from that, she’s a real lady. They invited the whole lot of us on Saturday night. It was a nice surprise. He said, ‘I’ll see you in Croke Park’.”

Taylor's Farewell

Taylor’s farewell, against unbeaten 29-year-old French contender Flora Pili, will be the first professional boxing card at Croke Park since that Ali night in 1972. This time, they expect around 80,000 people, the biggest crowd ever assembled for a boxing match in Ireland. Ali drew 18,000. Taylor will more than quadruple it.

The numbers tell their own story about how far the sport has travelled, and how far Taylor has carried it.

Doherty believes her experience will be the difference against Pili. The old pro in him still sees the fight in patterns and small decisions.

“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. Simple instructions, sharpened by a lifetime of rounds.

His own journey began in Ballyshannon at 11. He climbed through the amateur ranks, collecting Ulster and Irish titles from juvenile to senior level. In 1970, he took bronze at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, representing Northern Ireland through his Fermanagh-born father. He became a mainstay of the Irish international team at light-middleweight, winning 15 of 16 bouts before turning professional and moving to London in 1971.

Ali’s orbit soon pulled him in. Doherty first appeared on one of his undercards in October 1971, when Ali boxed an exhibition against Johnny “Gypsy” Frankham at the Royal Albert Hall. When the Croke Park date was confirmed for the following summer, Doherty got the call again.

He remembers the weigh-in at the Gresham Hotel, the surreal mix of Dublin formality and Ali’s easy charisma. He remembers the walk to the ring in Croke Park, the sound rising from the terraces. He remembers the moment the greatest fighter of all time reached out and tapped him on the head as he made his way through the ropes.

“Most of the crowd came over the barrier into the ring,” Doherty said. “Even the security and the guards couldn’t keep them back, just to get to Ali.”

That chaos has long since gone. Professional boxing itself disappeared from Croke Park for more than half a century. Doherty’s own career ended early, cut short in his 20s by injury. The sport moved on, the stadium changed, the country changed.

Yet on Saturday, the thread runs straight from Ali’s Dublin showcase to Taylor’s goodbye. From a young Donegal light-middleweight sharing a bill with a legend, to a Bray lightweight who became one.

Doherty will be there to watch it, to measure the noise, to feel the swell when Taylor makes that walk.

“I will be there for Katie Taylor; she’s so calm and nice … a down-to-earth girl,” he said. “What she’s done for boxing will never be done again.”

Ali gave Croke Park its first glimpse of greatness. Taylor, in front of 80,000, might just be giving it its last.