Over 40,000 tickets sold for Katie Taylor Croke Park fight

IN DEMAND: Over 40,000 tickets have been sold for Katie Taylor's upcoming fight at Croke Park, according to Matchroom chief Eddie Hearn. Pic: ©INPHO/James Crombie.

Over 40,000 tickets have been sold for Katie Taylor's upcoming fight at Croke Park, according to Matchroom chief Eddie Hearn.

Pre-sale tickets were released on Wednesday morning for Taylor’s bout against Flora Pili on 5 September. The remaining tickets will go on sale this Friday.

“Incredible,” Hearn said on social media. “Over 40,000 sold today on pre-sale alone! Expecting a complete sell-out on general sale this Friday. What a night this is going to be. Ireland stand up.”

Lidl Plus users and local residents were among the groups given access to a pre-sale Ticketmaster link.

Speaking at a press conference in Croke Park last week, Hearn expanded on the logistics of the show.

“She will be fighting in the middle of the pitch. The Hill will be closed, because it will be standing. That will be used for TV production.

“Any major stadium fight, the ring is always in the middle of the pitch.”

It will still be a fight night.

“It will be earlier than normal in terms of your TV shows, but you are not talking about an afternoon fight. I expect the ring walk to be about 9.00, 9.30pm. No later than 10.00pm.”

It will be the first time Croke Park has hosted a boxing event since Muhammad Ali's victory over Al ‘Blue’ Lewis in 1972.

Taylor recently went on a four-day promotional tour of Ireland, starting in Bray on Saturday and going on to Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Belfast. She also appeared on the pitch at half-time in last Saturday’s Leinster final.

This will be the Bray boxer’s farewell. She revealed last week that she would have retired if the iconic venue had not been secured.

“I didn’t think there was much else to chase after other than Croke Park,” she said.

“Not just Croke Park, I also wanted a real test. A real challenge, a real fight. We met those two conditions so it is amazing.”