Katie Taylor: “I’m ending my career on top, as the undisputed champion”

Katie Taylor slipped into the Croke Park press room more than two hours after the final fight of her career, looking fresh and relaxed rather than battered by another night in the ring.

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This was definitely the highlight of my whole career.

That was the ending she had wanted. On a night when one Irish fighter left the arena in a wheelchair and another was knocked through the ropes and needed oxygen, Taylor walked away unscarred. She left boxing before boxing left her.

“This was definitely the highlight of my whole career,” she said. Taylor had once believed nothing could top London 2012, then Madison Square Garden, and then her first fight with Amanda Serrano. Croke Park, she said, surpassed them all.

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I’m ending my career on top, which is what every athlete wants to do. I’m ending it on my terms and I’m ending as the undisputed champion.

“I’m ending my career on top, which is what every athlete wants to do. I’m ending it on my terms and I’m ending as the undisputed champion,” Taylor said. She also explained the extraordinary affection shown by the crowd, saying people had seen her victories as well as her vulnerabilities, including the heartbreak of Rio, the loss to Chantelle Cameron and personal difficulties. “My story is the story of everybody in the whole country,” she said.

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My story is the story of everybody in the whole country.