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Irish female boxing legend Katie Taylor said farewell to the arena this week and launched her final fight with a worship song.

Wearing a black gilded Celtic robe, the 40-year-old Olympic champion walked out with Psalm 18 written in gold and singing “All Hail King Jesus.”

According to the Irish Times, the event held at Croke Park in Dublin gathered an audience of 80,000, while over 1.6 million watched the fight on TV and online.

Notably, the Times added, “the last boxing fight at Croke Park saw Muhammad Ali defeat Al ‘Blue’ Lewis in front of 18,000 fans in 1972.”

Taylor won the record-breaking retirement match and retained her titles.

Boxing and the Olympics

Talking about her eventual retirement back in November 2025, she told Patrick Kielty on The Late Late Show that boxing has been her major focus in life.

That dedication to the sport goes back to her teens.

“I left very little room for relationships, and honestly even the thought of a relationship was out of the way for me.”

The career boxer has lived in the United States since 2016 and married widower and father of five, Sean McCavanagh, last year.

Taylor’s achievements also include putting female boxing on the Olympic map.

She recalled for Kielty the effort that it took, saying she simply persevered.

“I was invited by the Olympic committee to the Boxing [Championships in] Chicago for a special showcase fight to assess the sport.

“A few days before that fight, a member from the Olympic Committee came up to me and said, ‘Your performance will determine whether women’s boxing will be included in the Olympic Games or not.’

“I felt like the whole fate of the sport was lying on my shoulders,” Taylor said.

“I was basically, you know, fighting for the future of women’s boxing.”

In the end, the IOC “were so impressed with the standard that they included it in the Olympic Games, and the dream was alive at last.”

Katie Taylor, Faith and Family

Her faith and having family in the corner, alongside disappointment and her parents’ divorce, are big parts of the story.

Taylor parted ways with her dad in 2015, “following the breakdown of his marriage to the boxer’s mother Bridget,” the Irish Mirror explained.

Her dad, Pete, told the Mirror that Taylor had good morals, and recalled her telling him, “If you’ve split up with my mother, then I don’t want you in my corner.”

He also said he never wanted her to turn professional, essentially saying that women can get busted up worse than men boxing. The amateur circuit is different.

Taylor would later lose her quarter-final at the Rio Olympics — during a time that’s described as Taylor’s year of turmoil. The timeframe also coincided with her move to the United States.

Although they’ve reconciled, Taylor told The Late Late Show she missed having her dad in her corner.

“But I thank God that I was able to bounce back from that,” Taylor commented.

“I look at the Rio Olympics.

“It’s funny how God can work all things for good because that disappointment which almost crushed me was probably the door to the greatest season of my life.

“I wouldn’t have turned pro if it wasn’t for that loss.”

Taylor then explained that faith “is the most important thing to her.”

Faith doesn’t make her a fighter; it’s the cornerstone of her life, she said.

“I think it helps me with everything.

“It helps you make sense of the world. It is a worldview after all.”

“I view the world,” Taylor added, “through the lens that God is real.”

“That Jesus is a real historical figure who lived, who breathed, who died and rose again.

“I believe he’s the greatest of all time. And yeah, I’m getting emotional here talking about my faith; it’s just a foundation of my life. It’s the most essential part of my life.”

Taylor putting her faith at the forefront of her fights was a constant.

Katie Taylor, Prayer and Scripture

Prayer was a big part of her pre-fight ritual.

When writing about the 2018 Ross Whitaker documentary on Taylor’s life, the Irish Times declared, “Religion plays a major part in her life.”

Mum, Bridget, would pray while her dad, Pete, talked tactics.

Her mum also often read “passages from the Bible to her in her hotel rooms before fights.”

When applied pre-fight, scriptures were not picked at random.

This was reflected in the dedication for her post-London gold medal memoir in 2012, which reads:

“For His Honour. God honours those who honour Him.”

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

In the book, Taylor, who was 26 at the time, wrote that her mum insisted on the meaning being “specific to the moment of my needs.”

This was “something that she could share with me that would give me assurance and confidence.”

Such as Isaiah 54:17.

Her Psalm 18 branding makes its mark, Taylor said, because it’s her favourite Bible verse.

“This is a Psalm that I regularly read when I am away in competition.”

It’s a “reminder,” the Irish boxer proclaimed, “that it’s God who trains my mind for battle and He is my shield of victory.”

Noting the significant role scripture played in her fights, Taylor testified that they were also a reminder.

A reminder “not to focus on who was standing opposite [her] in the ring, but to focus on the God who is always standing beside [her], both in and out of the ring.”

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Images via a screenshot of YouTube and a screenshot of Instagram.