On Saturday night in Dublin, Ireland's most beloved fighter gets the ending few athletes ever receive: one last walk, one packed Croke Park and 80,000 fans cheering.

Heading into her historic farewell fight against Flora Pili this Saturday at Croke Park in Dublin, Katie Taylor holds a professional record of 25 wins and just 1 loss, with 6 knockout victories. The love here abounds. It shouts from bus stop ads and roadside billboards and the outside wall of a 200-year-old all-girls school. It crescendos this weekend in an event so singular that pundits grope for suitable hosannas for categorizing.

Eighty thousand and then some bought tickets for Katie Taylor's final boxing bout set for Saturday night at deeply storied Croke Park, and a promoter reiterated this week that they did all that buying in less than an hour. Age 40 now, Taylor has spent all this century beaming sunlight into the Irish consciousness without dampening it with even one droplet of disgrace. This individual, both bashful and fierce, has won an Olympic gold medal at London 2012 and 25 of 26 fights since becoming professional in 2016.

"It's hard to put into words the significance of this moment for Ireland," the retired Irish boxer Andy Lee said Tuesday. "I still pinch myself that this is actually happening," Taylor soon began at her microphone. She marveled at a "world where 80,000 people turn out for a female athlete" and concluded yet again, "I'm blown away by it."