Katie Taylor is getting exactly what she’s always wanted: a big fight at home in Ireland

Katie Taylor steps out of the 3Arena for the first time as a professional boxer on Saturday night in Dublin. Maybe it will all hit her then – the enormity of what she has done for boxing in Ireland and women’s boxing as a whole.

Feeling Taylor, it probably doesn’t show on her face, but maybe there’s a glimmer of it. Ever since he turned pro, Taylor has wanted to return to Ireland to fight and allow the fans to see him compete as a champion in his birthplace, where he is a huge star. But for years that seemed unlikely.

At the age of 15, Taylor fought in the first sanctioned women’s amateur fight in Ireland. Now, at the age of 36, after hundreds of amateur fights and 22 professional fights, he returns to one of the biggest professional fights in the country. Taylor, the undisputed lightweight champion, will face Chantelle Cameron for Cameron’s undisputed junior bantamweight title in one of the biggest fights of the year.

“This is something I wanted for a long time,” Taylor said. – I expressed my desire to really fight for years [at] home in Ireland. And because all the fights were in the UK or the US, I got discouraged along the way thinking it wasn’t going to happen.

“But now we’re here, getting ready for a big, huge fight and I’m so grateful.”

Taylor has wanted this moment since 2016, when she turned pro after the Olympics and left Ireland to train and eventually live full-time in the United States. America has become his temporary home — he bought a place in rural Connecticut — but returning to Ireland to fight had been an unfulfilled constant, with Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn occasionally mentioned for years.

There have been roadblocks and concerns. In 2016, there was a shootout at the weigh-in before the planned WBO European Championship match. Dublin, kill one man which led to the cancellation of the fight and changed the way boxing shows were organized in the country. While the impact wasn’t the same and it didn’t stop Taylor from fighting in his home country, in 2018 a fatal shooting took place at Bray Boxing Club, where Taylor’s father Peter was a trainer, which made national headlines. Taylor’s father was injured in the shooting.

None of those things directly involved Katie, and she declined to discuss either incident when asked by ESPN, but this is the first major fight in the country since. It was slow but the momentum was building for Taylor to finally fight in Ireland.

After Taylor beat Amanda Serrano last year at Madison Square Garden, several members of Serrano’s team said they would entertain a rematch in Ireland – Serrano was the first opponent before she had to pull out with a hand injury.

They tried to secure Croke Park for Taylor-Serrano 2 – Irish MMA star Conor McGregor even offered to help with the costs – and talks reached the highest levels of government in February. In the end, the match was booked at the smaller 3Arena.

“It felt a little surreal, to be honest with you,” Taylor’s mother Bridget said. “And I think my stomach turned a couple of times and I thought, OK, this is happening.”

Cameron stepped in to make sure Taylor got the fight he wanted. A fight his Irish compatriots were desperate to see — the cheapest ticket on the secondary market is more than $550, with some as high as $1,700, according to Ticketmaster.

“He didn’t seem very interested in fighting for the sake of fighting, you know what I mean,” Taylor’s brother Peter said. “The fight was supposed to represent progress for him, and that’s just his personality.

“I think he’s always just looking for progress, so I think he was worried for a few days. He knew he wanted someone really, really good. He wanted a big name.”

Cameron understood the atmosphere he would be arriving into. He understood that he would be the one to set his worth – not Taylor. But Cameron sees it too because Taylor is the one with all the pressure, even though Cameron is the champion because this is Taylor’s homecoming. This is an event that has been years in the making for him.

That suits Cameron. He can play spoiler even as champion while acknowledging Taylor’s importance to the sport and boxing in Ireland.

“If it wasn’t for Katie, I wouldn’t be in this position because of what she’s done for women’s boxing,” Cameron said. “He’s been incredible and he should have had a homecoming battle long before this because he deserves it.”

When Cameron stepped in and the fight was saved, Taylor could once again resume her focus: training. Everything has been unchanged so far, although the venue will not be. He was still practicing in Connecticut. His manager Brian Peters has handled all incoming ticket requests and Tomas Rohan assisted with his media requests. In Dublin, he does his best to treat it like a fight in the US or England, rather than miles from where he grew up.

During the week of the fight, her team and her mother have already worked to isolate Taylor from family and friends who want to compete for her attention. Time with them will come later when he stays in Bray.

It will be the first world title fight in the country since 2011, when Guillermo Rigondeaux knocked out Willie Casey in the first round to win the WBA interim junior featherweight title. The last time an Irish fighter won a world title fight in the country? Bernard Dunne knocked out Ricardo Cordoba at the 3Arena, then called the O2.

One of the undercard fights? Taylor beat Carrie Barry 27-3 in a lightweight amateur match. Will that memory come to Taylor on Saturday night? Probably not. But his past intertwines with his present and somehow fits his whole thought process: His career is as much about the “next generation of fighters” as he is about himself.

This fight means everything to him – but the approach is the same as every fight before this one. Train. Fight. Win. What next.

“This is absolutely huge for me,” Taylor said. “This is what I really wanted all along.

“We’re bringing big time boxing back to Ireland for the first time in a long time.”

ESPN UK boxing reporter Nick Parkinson contributed to this story.