Katie Taylor: The undisputed bantamweight champion will retire after the Dublin bout this summer

When Taylor hangs up her gloves, she will do so as one of the greatest boxers of all time, and perhaps as the greatest athlete Ireland has ever produced.

Taylor has practiced boxing most of her life, taking up the sport when she was 12 years old and beginning her amateur career for the first time in 2001.

But she grew up in a very sexist Ireland, where women weren’t even allowed to drink in the same bars as men, let alone fight in the ring.

Her influence and leadership helped usher in a new era for women’s rights in sports.

She fought in her first legal women’s bout at the age of 15 against fellow Irishman Alana Nihill. She became a world champion several times before winning an Olympic gold medal in 2012.

Taylor revolutionized the professional game and, along with her contemporaries, shattered the glass ceiling and brought women’s boxing to the top of the sport.

She is also one of five boxers, both male and female, to become undisputed champion in two weight classes in the four-belt era.

Taylor always conducted herself with grace and humility, always paying tribute to the women who came before her, and those who paved the way for her like her hero, Deirdre Gogarty.

You represented Ireland with dignity and distinction. But she still has another dream, which is to fight in Croke Park in front of as many people as possible.

Costs have so far blighted that dream, but an Irish icon’s fairy-tale ending may have the chance to make one last dream come true.

Who can argue that she doesn’t deserve it?