The 42

DUBLINER CLODAGH KEATING, aged 10, has dressed up as Katie Taylor for three consecutive Halloweens.

There’ll be an authenticity to this year’s costume: a pair of Taylor’s gloves that Clodagh will cherish for a lifetime.

Towards the end of Taylor’s open workout at The Helix on Thursday, the light-welterweight world champion removed her mitts and conferred with her trainer, Ross Enamait, peering into the crowd of hundreds that serenaded her from the mezzanine.

Those who have attended workouts on previous Taylor fight weeks knew what was coming. Clodagh was none the wiser until she was hoisted over the barrier and told, ‘You’re going to meet Katie Taylor.’ It was incidentally Cabra heavyweight Thomas Carty [11-1, 9KOs] — he faces veteran Englishman Dave Allen [27-9-2, 20KOs] in the chief-support bout at Croke Park this Saturday — who provided the assist, with Taylor’s team collecting Clodagh on the other side of the fence and chaperoning her towards the ring.

Katie Taylor and Clodagh Keating. Gary Carr / INPHO Gary Carr / INPHO / INPHO

After bounding over the rope held down for her by Tomás Rohan and setting foot on the canvas, the shell-shocked Clodagh waved at her hero before bursting into tears as Taylor bent forward to embrace her.

Taylor, too, became visibly emotional as she met the penultimate dance partner of her career, which will finish against Flora Pili at GAA Headquarters in three days’ time.

“She asked me what sports I played,” an elated Clodagh told The 42 afterwards, accompanied by her mother, Esther.

“I told her I played GAA but that I do boxing in school, and she asked me if I wanted to box with her.”

Taylor, having already built up a sweat with an intense pad session of her own, took Clodagh through her paces. Tears still streamed from the 10-year-old’s face as she delivered a series of right hands to Taylor’s corresponding, gloveless palm.

Katie Taylor's final open workout was special. Andy Lee was VERY impressed 🇮🇪✨#TaylorPili | Sept 5 | Live on DAZN ▪️ pic.twitter.com/YYC5wNQYND

— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) September 2, 2026

“She told me she wanted to meet me because she saw me trying to get her attention,” beamed Clodagh, who was kitted out in Taylor’s traditional all-black garb. “She told me she loved me. I was overwhelmed. Katie Taylor is everything to me.”

In a separate chat with the BBC, Clodagh apologised to her mother as she declared that she would have sold the family home, and even the dog, Teddy, for Katie Taylor.

Esther, who was also sporting a Katie Taylor t-shirt, joked to The 42 afterwards: “I was thinking, ‘Don’t mind Clodagh! This is my dream!’

“We really can’t believe it.”

A beautiful moment as Katie Taylor invites a young fan in the ring to have a move around with her 🥹#TaylorPili | Sept 5 | Live on DAZN ▪️ pic.twitter.com/HAjndubmO5

— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) September 2, 2026

Taylor raised Clodagh’s hand to rapturous acclaim before the young fan departed, a new pair of gloves in hand and her tricolour bucket hat adorned by the signature of her hero.

“Just to feel the atmosphere in this small arena, I can’t imagine what Saturday evening is going to be like,” Taylor said afterwards.

“Having the chance to meet little Clodagh, there, who got into the ring”, she added, waving at her workout partner back among the audience, “this is what it’s all about for me. It’s just an absolute joy to be here. I don’t take this for granted.

“In a few days, I’m going to be making my last ring-walk, but just looking back on an amazing 30 years in the ring, I’m overwhelmed with gratitude.”

Taylor’s actual workout with trainer Enamait appeared even sharper and more intense than usual, her hand-speed showing no sign of deterioration even at 40, and after over a year since her last outing against Amanda Serrano in New York.

The intensity of her open session prompted the chuckling former middleweight world champion Andy Lee to ask Taylor if she was certain that Saturday would be her last fight.

“I think 40 is the new 30, isn’t it?” Taylor laughed. “I obviously just turned 40 a few weeks ago but I’m feeling great, thank God.

“It’s been an amazing few months preparing for this fight, and I’m obviously expecting a tough fight, but this is what I’m made for, this is what I’m born for.

“This isn’t going to be a walk in the park — I’ve got a tough young challenger in front of me,” Taylor said of French opponent Flora Pili, 29. “But I purposely chose a tough challenger for my final fight. I think I’ve built up my reputation choosing the tough fights throughout my whole career, so why treat my last fight any differently?”

Challenger Flora Pili of France. Gary Carr / INPHO Gary Carr / INPHO / INPHO

Further illustration that Taylor — or, more likely in this instance, her management team — are taking Pili seriously came shortly afterwards when the written media were informed that, for the second day in succession, the champion had high-tailed it and would not be attending a scheduled 10-minute roundtable interview. On a week of many ‘lasts’, a final Irish goodbye from Taylor felt as fitting as it was frustrating.

Television and in-house interviews were prioritised at Tuesday’s press conference, with Taylor becoming teary-eyed in a couple of them. As is their right, and indeed their duty to their fighter, Taylor’s team are clearly keen to protect her from becoming emotionally drained.

This is likely further evidenced by the fixing of the main-event press conference for a Tuesday as opposed to the traditional Thursday, affording the champion an extra day’s rest, relatively speaking, before Friday’s weigh-in.

Pili is a deserving challenger, albeit in a light-welterweight division weakened by the departures of the likes of Chantelle Cameron and Mikaela Mayer up to welterweight, which is an anatomical bridge too far at this juncture of Taylor’s career.

The 12-0 (2KOs) Frenchwoman is clearly a naturally larger specimen than longtime lightweight Taylor, but Pili kept her cards close to her chest during her own workout, exclusively shadow-boxing before receiving hearty applause from an almost entirely Irish crowd at The Helix. She waved to Taylor’s fans before clasping her hands in appreciation.

The Moselle native, who doesn’t speak English, did not give an onstage interview. Dublin rapper Casper Walsh, one half of former hip-hop duo Versatile, instead performed before Taylor’s eventual entrance.

‘White Rhino’ Dave Allen, meanwhile, who faces Thomas Carty in Saturday’s heavyweight chief support, didn’t work out at all: Wednesday was his daughter’s first day at primary school, and so he stayed back in England for an extra day to drop her and pick her up. There are certain days you don’t get back, after all.

The mission for Katie Taylor, then, is to ensure that her Croke Park farewell becomes a day that she wishes she could relive, and not one that she wishes she lived differently. Even as she nears the final bell, though, she continues to make wishes come true.

Written by Gavan Casey and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.