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Matchroom BoxingKatie Taylor’s superhero status in Ireland has been underlined by the amount of people who watched her final fight on television.
The Matchroom Boxing-promoted 10-rounder with Flora Phili, which took place in front of 83,000 fans in Dublin’s Croke Park, drew a peak audience of 1.6m on Irish public service broadcaster, RTE. That equates to 30 per cent of the Irish population though further factors should be considered.
It doesn’t include those who went to pubs and bars to watch the fight, nor does it include those who will have gathered for fight parties to watch in big groups. In short, it means at least 30 per cent of the Irish population watched but the reality is surely significantly more.
In addition to the 1.6m, the event boasted 552,000 streams on RTE player.
On average, the programme averaged 973,000 TV viewers - a 74 per cent share of the available viewing audience.
Elsewhere around the world, the event was streamed live by DAZN, who never divulge viewership.
"On a historic Saturday night, Irish audiences came together in huge numbers to celebrate the extraordinary career of an Irish sporting icon,” said RTE’s director of video Steve Carson.
"Katie Taylor’s final victory was a national moment that will be remembered for many years to come.
"RTÉ Sport felt it was important to be able to bring live coverage from Croke Park to viewers and listeners, free-to-air, right across the country."
Taylor, while becoming an undisputed champion for the third time, beat Phili on a lopsided points decision to take her record to 26-1 (6 KOs).
After the fight, the 40-year-old said: “I don’t think there’s another country in the world that would sell 80,000 tickets for a female athlete.
"I’m convinced Ireland was the only country that would actually do that. What a way to end this amazing journey.”