{"id":674281,"date":"2026-09-05T18:38:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T18:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/674281\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T18:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T18:38:14","slug":"who-is-flora-pili-katie-taylors-french-opponent-arrives-in-dublin-for-croke-park-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/674281\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Flora Pili? Katie Taylor\u2019s French opponent arrives in Dublin for Croke Park showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christmas was just around the corner when Flora Pili extended her pro record to 13 fights undefeated with a majority decision win over the Serbian Jelena Janicijevic at the L’Agora Champ de Foire in her own home town.<\/p>\n

The Agora is a type of multipurpose cultural centre flanked by the D603 motorway that connects the town to the city of Metz and surrounded by a vape shop, a wine store and a supermarket in an area that has the look of a suburban industrial estate.<\/p>\n

It holds maybe 2,000 people and half-a-dozen of Pili\u2019s bouts have been held there. Only three of her fights have happened outside of her native region: one on the island of Corsica, another in Padua in Italy and a third in Luxembourg.<\/p>\n

Janicijevic is a 41-year-old with just six wins in her eleven bouts.<\/p>\n

Now Pili is about to face a global icon in Katie Taylor in front of over 80,000 people at Croke Park, and on a card being screened worldwide by DAZN and on Irish national terrestrial TV. This Dorothy is a long way from Kansas.<\/p>\n

**********\u00a0<\/p>\n

Taylor has fought 216 times. She has taken to the ring in 21 countries and in 14 of Ireland\u2019s 32 counties across all provinces, and won no less than 35 titles across European, World and Olympic levels between her careers as an amateur and a pro.<\/p>\n

Her story is emblazoned into the Irish sporting consciousness, but how many of her opponents have survived the test of time? How many will we remember after Taylor exits the ring on Saturday night and walks into retirement?<\/p>\n

Alanna Nihell was Alanna Audley when she faced Taylor in the first ever officially sanctioned female bout on Irish soil 25 years ago. Sofya Ochigava will never escape Taylor\u2019s shadow after falling the wrong side of the decision in their 2012 Olympic final.<\/p>\n

Those aside, will many of the amateurs she faced stand out from the crowd? Eva Wahlstrom fought Taylor six times in the unpaid ranks \u2013 and once more as a pro \u2013 but only the most committed of boxing enthusiasts will remember that.<\/p>\n

Natasha Jones? Queen Underwood? Maybe.<\/p>\n

\"KatieKatie Taylor, left, and Flora Pili square-off in the company of Matchroom Boxing CEO Frank Smith during the ceremonial weigh-ins, held at Trinity College in Dublin. Pic: Stephen McCarthy\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

Eddie Hearn was asked to choose this week between Taylor\u2019s amateur and professional careers. It was hardly a surprise when her promoter leaned towards the latter, but the rivalries alone would count as much as any recency bias.<\/p>\n

In Chantelle Cameron and Amanda Serrano, Taylor encountered opponents who helped her elevate each other, and women\u2019s boxing with them, and Serrano acknowledged the bond created after their\u00a0historic trilogy
<\/a>\u00a0with a public message this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for the memories, thank you for the wars, thank you for the stitches,\u201d she said on social media. \u201cEnjoy retirement. You earned it. And I will always be proud that our names will forever be connected in boxing history.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As for Cameron, she had long given up hope that her own Taylor trilogy might happen at Croke Park after winning the first and losing the return. She spoke just last month about how she is just \u201cthe wrong opponent\u201d for the Wicklow woman.<\/p>\n

Pili will, if nothing else, be a decent quiz question a generation from now, but will that be all?<\/p>\n

\u201cBoxing is ruthless,\u201d said Stephane Hadjeras, head of the history division at the French Boxing Federation, when discussing this fight the past week. \u201cWhen you triumph, you become a god of the arena. But the moment you lose, you can very quickly be forgotten.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

**********\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hadjeras, also a contemporary history lecturer, was talking to Moselle.TV and the interview he gave offered a fascinating, alternative insight into an occasion that, for understandable reasons, has been framed exclusively in Irish terms up to now.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time a Gallic boxer has entered such a lion\u2019s den.<\/p>\n

Georges Carpentier fought Jack Dempsey in front of a similar-sized crowd in Jersey City 105 years ago. A World War I pilot who had been awarded the Croix de Guerre for his actions, Carpentier was said to be unnerved by the sheer numbers in the stands.<\/p>\n

He would go on to fight Battling Siki in front of 50,000 in Paris while others including Robert Cohen, Marcel Cerdan and Marcel Thil all appeared before huge gatherings on home soil, none of them any more recent than 70 years ago.<\/p>\n

Pili will be following in their distant footsteps and, she will hope, those of more recent French, and female, world champions like Myriam Lamare, Caroline Veyre and Segolene Lefebvre should the incredible happen and she claims the various belts on offer in Dublin.<\/p>\n

So, who exactly is she?<\/p>\n

Pili is 29 years of age and boxing since her father and current trainer Pietro took her to a gym as a 12-year-old. She was fighting for French national teams within two years, won amateur titles and turned pro in November of 2019.<\/p>\n

A former European championship, and a current IBO European holder, she has taken unpaid leave from an administrative job in her local town hall to prepare for the biggest night of her life, and she arrives on the back of an intense three-month camp.<\/p>\n

For eight of those days she sparred with the Algerian Ichrak Chaib, a 25-year-old undefeated in three pro bouts who was prepping for her own appearance at the upcoming Mediterranean Games. The choice was no lottery.<\/p>\n

“We had the opportunity to bring her in,” Pili\u2019s father told L\u2019Equipe. “Like Taylor, she is very fast.\u201d The strategy is simple: Taylor is shorter, by two inches, and the challengers are looking to keep the Bray Bomber out of their own red zone.<\/p>\n

Pili was already at fight weight when she boarded the plane for Dublin on Monday and Andy Lee\u2019s take on her, as he watched her go through her open workout for DAZN on Wednesday afternoon, was as sharp and informative as you\u2019d expect.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has a good chance,\u201d said the former world champion who described her style as solid, compact and with a good right-hand lead, but with a basic flaw in how she crosses her legs when shifting left to right. That will likely be exploited.<\/p>\n

**********\u00a0<\/p>\n

Taylor\u2019s opponent appeared in Dublin accompanied by her husband Joseph, her daughter Serena, her parents, the president of her local club and the Italian promoter Christian Cherci \u2013 and with her hair in eye-catching braids.<\/p>\n

Dyed in the vivid blue, white and red of the French flag, she matched it in the ring midweek with a white tee festooned with red and blue stripes that brought to mind some of the classic French football kits of the early 1980s and 1998.<\/p>\n

Like Taylor, she is leaning in to her patriotic pride this week. \u201cI hope to make France proud,\u201d she said at Tuesday\u2019s press conference and, along with her family, she has already been received by Celine Place, the French ambassador to Ireland.<\/p>\n

Cameron has spoken of the \u201chostility\u201d she felt in the 3 Arena when facing Taylor. Pili isn\u2019t seen as quite the same threat, and that should help her as she stands on the canvas for what\u2019s likely to be some time before Taylor\u2019s ring walk is complete.<\/p>\n

All eyes will be on one woman. It\u2019s Pili\u2019s job, her chance, to change that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christmas was just around the corner when Flora Pili extended her pro record to 13 fights undefeated with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,26779,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-674281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-katie-taylor","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117219893043221685","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}