Katie Taylor caps iconic career with unforgettable farewell in Dublin
Ariel Helwani reacts to Katie Taylor's retirement fight at Croke Park and reflects on the incredible legacy she leaves behind after one of the greatest careers in boxing history.
Video Transcript
Over in Dublin, and I'm not gonna spend too much time on this because PT Up on the Pod Feed has a full recap live from Croke Park.
He recorded it live seconds after the end of the fight, so go watch it.
But Katie Taylor beats Flora Pili, becomes a three-time undisputed champion, and, and honestly retires in truly one of the most breathtaking scenes that I've ever seen covering combat sports, and I wish I was there.
Everything from the crowd, 83,000 people at Croke Park, and what coverage on uncrowned.com in particular this week, from the Jackson Morrow photo gallery to the PT articles.
I mean, everyone killed it.
Darsha, everyone killed it.
Shout out to Shaheen, the editor-in-chief.
The walkout was amazing.
The music was amazing.
The crowd was amazing.
The scenes were amazing.
The fight was great.
It was better than Taylor-Serrano three.
She had to do what she had to do to win.
The last few seconds were vintage Katie.
She gets the W. Loved everything about it.
Afterwards, w- you know, shout out to Jamie Ward, you're not supposed to give up the mic.
He gives up the mic, and you know what?
If I was in that position, I would've given up the mic, too, because she went out and talked about every single person in her life from her, from her manager, to her coaches, to her promoter, to her mom, to her dad, to her family, to her husband, to the crowd, to the people.
It was vintage Katie.
It was all class.
It was dripping with class as only she can do.
It was so uniquely her.
She's the only one that could exude this type of emotion.
I was thinking about this.
I don't know if there's a single country that loves a female athlete like Ireland loves Katie, and I would argue a single country that loves an athlete like Ireland loves Katie, male or female.
And then afterwards, walking around the ring by herself, no one in the ring, putting the gloves down, all the belts being put next to the gloves, the flag, the tri-color next to the gloves.
I wish these two things weren't happening at the same time, these two great events, but they were.
Thank God for the phone and the TV.
I'm not lucky enough to have multiple TVs like some of you, but I was just like My head was spinning.
The em- this is why we love combat sports, the emotion, the passion.
It makes us feel someone, something.
We go on these journeys with people.
We, we, we get emotionally invested in their stories, in their, in their backstories, in their highs, their lows, their ups, their downs.
Fuck, one of the greatest honors of my career was being in the ring with Katie and Amanda after Katie, and Amanda two and three.
Being in the building for Taylor-Serrano one at MSG, just watching it, taking it all in with PT and Chuck, something I'll never forget.
Oh, my God, it was unbelievable.
I hope, I hope, I hope that you guys watched it, and if you were just focused on UFC Paris, I understand.
Go to DAZN and watch it.
Do yourself a favor.
Beautiful, majestic, heavenly stuff.
The walkout was great.
Adam Smith was great.
Matchroom deserves all the credit in the world.
The Thomas Carty, Dave Allen fight was shambolic.
Carty sort of hits him behind the head.
Excuse me, Dave Allen kind of hits him behind the head.
Carty falls out of the ring through the ropes, fight's over a minute and a half in.
Not quite sure what happened.
Was it the shoulder?
Was it the knee?
Remember, he tore his knee, a year and a half or so ago at the theater next door to MSG.
Paddy Donovan looked great.
There were some great performances.
Stadium shows sometimes cannot come across well.
This one looked amazing.
The sun setting, it was like old school WrestleMania.
I love stadium shows.
I, I, I would, I would sign up for a stadium show every day of the week.
So that was incredible
