Katie Taylor in Croker?

[Rossfan]

How many at this event tonight ever attended a woman's boxing event before tonight?

[seafoid]

https://youtu.be/Fvcfj9W-pRo?si=GqEdQZ8-9kYZoGW3

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2026/09/05/everything-about-katie-taylors-career-was-impossible-until-she-did-it/
Even after that ban was lifted, it took until 1998 and the landmark Jane Couch case for women to actually be granted a licence to box in Britain. The British Boxing Board of Control had refused to grant a licence, with one of their stated justifications arguing that being a woman, premenstrual syndrome made her "too unstable to box". This was the position of the boxing authorities, declared in public court, around the time Katie Taylor was entering her teens.

She was aiming herself at something that had no bullseye, diving off a high board into a pool that was only starting to fill with water. Women weren't part of the European Amateur Boxing Championships until 2001. The first ever women's World Championships took place in that same Halloween week that Taylor had her debut fight. She was 15 years old

Above all else, that's been the Katie Taylor calling card. At every step along the way, she has reconfigured people's idea of what success looks like. The very top of her sport, that sainted place she said she wanted to get to as a little girl, stopped being an aspiration for her after a while. Instead, it became something defined entirely by what she did.
And so one European gold medal became six. And one world gold medal became five. And the tentative introduction of women's boxing at London 2012 became the most raucous, most ear-splitting gold medal of the whole Games. Her excellence forced continual reassessment of what the sport could be.

There were three Olympic weight divisions for women in 2012. By the time Paris came around in 2024, there were six. In LA in two years, there will be seven – same as the men. Katie Taylor didn't do all that but she did more than anyone else to set the weather for it. It's not a reach to say that she changed women's amateur boxing, not just in Ireland but across the world. That would have been a life's work for anyone else.
But again, that's a judgment based on precedent, based on a set of facts and norms that existed before her. You only needed to look around the Ireland of the early 2010s to see the change she was bringing to places beyond the tiny world of amateur boxing.
She became a role model, beloved by families across the land. She redefined what danger means in the minds of people who would otherwise recoil at the idea of fighting for sport. Parents who'd fret at the sight of their little one climbing a tree suddenly thought nothing of pointing at a woman who punches people in the face and holding her up as a hero.
She became the landmark figure in Irish women's sport, the Eiffel on the cityscape. Go to any women's football or camogie All-Ireland for the past 15 years and the match programme will often include Q&As with some of the competing players. By a distance, the name cited most frequently as sporting hero is Katie Taylor, someone who outside of the occasional photo op has neither kicked an O'Neills nor swung a hurley in her life.
It took a while but eventually the whole of Irish sport copped on. There's a throwaway line in Anthony Daly's autobiography, about a dressing down he gave the Dublin hurlers in early 2014. They had beaten UCD the previous week in the Walsh Cup but it had been a closer affair than their dominance had deserved. So the next time he saw them, he gave it to them between the eyes.

When Katie Taylor is fighting a poor opponent," he asked them, "does she win 19-17? No, she performs. It's about how Katie performs. I know it's the one word that kills ye but ye were amateurish on Tuesday night." Daly didn't cite Leinster Rugby or Man City or even, closer to home, the still-rampant Kilkenny teams that were ritually disembowelling teams under Brian Cody. Katie Taylor was who he reached for.

so now here we are. Croke Park in front of 80,000 people. "We bleed Croke Park," she told the English DAZN interviewer on Tuesday. Nobody else would have tried so hard to get it done, nor would mountains have been moved to make it happen for anyone else. But Katie Taylor stands alone.
Every part of this was impossible. Taking up the sport when it wasn't there to take up. Training herself to fight when there had never been a fight put on. Winning gold medals when Irish women had never even entered competition. Making the Olympics happen for women worldwide 108 years after they had first happened for men.
Making parents everywhere check their own prejudices and reconsider what they can tolerate for their daughters in sport. Convincing ruthless millionaire promoters that they could make bank off her name. Making several lifetimes' fortunes for herself along the way.

There will never be another Irish sporting life like it.

[Tony Baloney]

A clearly concerted social media campaign from nationalist politicians to have RTE overturn their 'decision' to geoblock the fight in the 6c.

Who wants to tell them

Whose decision was it? Don't particularly care about this fight but I hate the geo blocking in general

DAZN. Rte have rights for the 26 only. In the 'UK' it's ppv

I'd love to see the PPV stats for people who will actually pay rather than use a Firestick. This entire thing is an oddity. Apart from weirdos like Laoislad the vast majority of people liked seeing her do well but wouldn't get out of their own road to see her live or even on tv and now she's in Croke Park with people crying about a geoblock!

[laoislad]

f**k you Baloney 😂

[Tony Baloney]

f**k you Baloney 😂

Soz mate 

[Norm-Peterson]

I don't care about geo blocking as it usually is just the Irish soccer team and I don't watch them anyway. I actually hope they are beat every game. I don't like their fan base you see.

I remember once a Tyrone game was geo blocked on Sky suring extra time because an Irish soccer match was scheduled to start.

[quit yo jibbajabba]

NORMMMMMMMMMM

[Norm-Peterson]

How many at this event tonight ever attended a woman's boxing event before tonight?

People complain about band wagoners in every Croke Park event it seems, maybe you would prefer if it is was half empty.
I won't be watching anyway, I'm not a virtue signaler who wants to prove what a big feminist I am.

[ArmaghTastic]

You seem like a delightful person norm.

[Wildweasel74]

Think am picking up rte 2 on ch716

[square_ball]

An east nights pay for Carty and Allen.

[The Boy Wonder]

An east nights pay for Carty and Allen.

Seemingly a bizarre end to the main undercard but we're have not seen it on RTE !

The previous bout lasted 4 of 10 rounds - a bloody spectacle and a mismatch.

A lot of padding needed before the main bout - what will the Croker crowd make of it ?

[Captain Obvious]

Just switched over for the pure cringe Martin Morrissey and Michael Flatley piece.

[The Boy Wonder]

 We should be watching Up for the Match and looking forward to All-Ireland Hurling Final tomorrow