Katie Taylor Weighs In for Final Fight at Croke Park

Katie Taylor has stepped onto the scales for the final time in her professional career. One last ritual, one last stare down, before Dublin gets the farewell night it has waited years to see.

At 40, the undisputed queen of women’s boxing will close the book on an era on Saturday at Croke Park, facing unbeaten challenger Flora Pili with her status at the very top of the pound‑for‑pound lists still intact. The stage is perfect. The stakes are fitting. The end is close enough to touch.

Taylor came in at 139.6 pounds, comfortably under the limit, with Pili at 139.9. The numbers barely mattered. What mattered was the noise, the colour, the realisation that this was the last time Taylor would stand on a fight-week scale as an active champion.

The two shared a final, measured faceoff. No chaos, no pushing. Just the look of a champion who has seen every kind of fight, and a challenger who believes she can ruin the script.

"I'm just so excited, to be honest," Taylor said. "I've been saying all week how grateful I am for this opportunity. I just can't believe that I've been dreaming about this for the last few years and we're one day away from making this fight happen; one day away from ending my career in my dream venue, in Croke Park."

It is the kind of line that belongs to a retirement tour in any sport. In boxing, you rarely get the chance to script it. Taylor has, and she intends to walk away as she has lived her career: with everything on the line.

Molly McCann’s new chapter

Earlier on the card, another familiar name from a different world continues her own reinvention.

Former UFC fighter Molly McCann, now 4-0 as a professional boxer, returns on the undercard against Sylwia Doligala. McCann weighed in at 119.4 pounds to Doligala’s 119.5, before the pair went nose-to-nose in a tense faceoff that underlined how seriously McCann is taking this second act.

She is not the main event. Not on this night. But she has carved out a place on a bill that feels like a celebration of different strands of fighting life converging in one stadium.

Full weigh-in results

Main card (DAZN, 2 p.m. ET)

• Katie Taylor (139.6) vs. Flora Pili (139.9)
• Dave Allen (279.5) vs. Thomas Carty (256.2)
• Paddy Donovan (146.3) vs. Tyrone McKenna (146.8)
• Taylor Bevan (169.3) vs. Emmet Brennan (167.2)

Prelims (MMA Fighting, 11 a.m. ET)

• Molly McCann (119.4) vs. Sylwia Doligala (119.5)
• Joe McGrail (121.9) vs. Matthew Boreland (121.7)
• Bobbi Flood (155.3) vs. Jack Swallow (156.2)
• Adam Olaniyan (257.5) vs. Matej Hudak (293)
• Paul Ryan (161.1) vs. Paddy Gallagher (162.7)

All made weight. All are ready.

But only one fighter walks into Croke Park knowing it is the last time. The question now is whether Katie Taylor walks out of it the same way she has left almost every other arena in her career: with her hand raised and a legacy untouched.