Katie Taylor's Croke Park Farewell Headlines a Loaded Boxing Week

Katie Taylor gets the send-off she's chased her whole career this week, headlining Croke Park in Dublin with roughly 80,000 supporters expected. Her WBA, WBO and IBF super lightweight titles are on the line, along with the vacant WBC strap she once held, against France's Sandy Pili, who brings her own IBO belt into the ring. It's the farewell fight, plain and simple.

Pili, 29, is no ceremonial opponent. She holds a title and sits as the #1 contender for one of Taylor's belts, which makes her about as legitimate a dance partner as this occasion could hope for. Still, the whole night is built around Taylor's exit, and anything other than a tearful home win would rank as one of the bigger shocks Croke Park has seen this year.

Ruiz Runs It Back Again

Over in Newark, Andy Ruiz cranks up his every-other-year comeback machine one more time. He hasn't fought since a majority draw with Jarrell Miller in August 2024, which itself followed a September 2022 decision over Luis Ortiz. The magic moment remains that 2018 upset of Anthony Joshua — now 29-4 (26 KO) and coming off a knockout of Jake Paul — before Joshua reclaimed the belts in the rematch months later.

His opponent is Damian Knyba, a 30-year-old Pole entering off a third-round TKO loss to WBC champ Agit Kabayel, who's a spotless 27-0 (19 KO). No disgrace in that. But Knyba's best wins — Joey Dawejko, Curtis Harper, Michael Coffie — leave his actual level murky. He's clearly above gatekeeper fodder and clearly below the division's top tier.

Ruiz is in his late 30s now, tied to a multi-fight Matchroom deal, and realistically this looks like a stepping stone toward a Miller rematch rather than a genuine title run. The undercard leans on nostalgia, with a PBC-flavored lineup featuring Vito Mielnicki defending his WBO middleweight belt against Austin "Ammo" Williams, plus unbeaten Argentine puncher Alan Chaves against the durable Eridson Garcia.

The Rest of the Week

In Montreal, cruiserweight prospect Lenar Perez faces a veteran gate check in Thabiso Mchunu — a name recognizable mostly for fights a decade ago against Oleksandr Usyk (now 25-0) and Junior Makabu. Mchunu's last real win came over five years back against Evgeny Tishchenko, but the shallow talent pool at 200 pounds makes safer matchmaking understandable while Perez builds toward names like Jai Opetaia (30-0).

Elsewhere, Ludwigshafen hosts a respectable super welterweight sorter between Slawa Spomer and Faisal Abubakari, and Nashville's CountryBox keeps rolling with Clayton Q on music duty. But it's Taylor's night in Dublin that everyone will remember.