Crombie in focus for Katie Taylor’s historic final fight

Thomas Lyons

On Saturday night, the eyes of the nation turned to Croke Park for a remarkable chapter in Irish sporting history, and among those privileged to witness it from inside the ropes was a Westmeath photographer who has spent almost two decades documenting the career of Katie Taylor.

Multi-award-winning photographer James Crombie had a front-row seat to history as Taylor brought her glittering boxing career to a close with victory over Flora Pili at Croke Park.

With more than 83,000 people packed into the stadium and millions more watching around the world, Taylor became a three-time undisputed world champion in her final professional fight.

For James, the significance of the occasion began long before Taylor entered the ring.

He spent the previous fortnight with the Bray boxer and her team, documenting the build-up to the final work night of Ireland’s best known professional pugilist.

“I’ve been Katie’s photographer for the last two weeks, so I’ve been up with her in camp all that time,” he told the Westmeath Examiner on Monday.

The access gave the Rahugh photographer an extraordinary insight into the preparations of an elite athlete as she approached the final contest of her remarkable career.

“It was just amazing, to be sitting having dinner with Katie at the table at the house with five or six people, just two hours before she left for Croke Park, just something else,” he said.

The journey to the stadium was equally memorable. James travelled as part of Taylor’s cavalcade, which included two blacked-out Mercedes vehicles. He was in the second car, while Taylor travelled in the first.

“To get a police escort into the tunnel in Croke Park is something I’d never experienced,” he recalled.

Before the fight, James had been granted unprecedented access to Taylor and her team. He was in the dressing room for the hours leading up to her ring walk, witnessing the preparation, the concentration and tension that surrounded the final moments before she stepped into the ring.

“I usually do team photography, 26 players and their coaches. This was just her and her coach. It’s all focused on one person. To be around that… it’s so inspiring.”

One of the most powerful moments came around 10 minutes before Taylor left the dressing room.

The usual music stopped and All Hail King Jesus began to play. Taylor stood in the centre of the room wearing her cape, robe and gloves, shadow boxing and preparing herself mentally for the challenge ahead.

Behind her, members of her team stood holding her championship belts, while promoter Eddie Hearn stood at the back with an Irish flag draped around his neck. “No one spoke for around 10 minutes,” James said. “It was just that song and her just getting in the zone.”

Then came the moment everyone had been waiting for: “Someone came in the door and just clapped and said, ‘OK, we’re walking, we’re walking’.”

The photographer went ahead of the group to capture Taylor’s walk to the ring: “I burst out of the dressing room to get in front of them as they walked from the innards of Croke Park with Katie. Then everyone just left her and she walked that walk. It was just amazing.”

For James, it was more than another sporting assignment: “I was walking alongside the entourage, right up to the ring. It was a great experience. A very cultural Irish sporting moment. And just to be a fly on the wall to document it for them; unbelievable.”

James’s association with Taylor stretches back years. He first photographed her at a parish hall in Athy and later travelled to Barbados as a journalist to cover one of her world title triumphs.

His involvement in Saturday night’s historic occasion came through Dunshaughlin boxing promoter Brian Peters, whom James has known for around 20 years.

“I met Brian Peters about six weeks ago. He asked me if I would be interested in coming on board as Katie’s photographer for the run-up to Croke Park and document a part of history. I was so privileged.”

James’s credentials made him ideally suited to the assignment. He has won the PPI AIB Irish Press Photographer of the Year award three times, in 2021, 2022 and 2025, and is a staff photographer with Inpho Sports Photography in Dublin.

Perhaps the most memorable part of the experience came after the fight.

James was invited to a barbecue with Taylor’s family and sponsors, where the champion spent an hour and a half signing autographs, chatting to supporters and posing for photographs.

He was also invited to bring his two daughters, Anna and Hayleigh aged 15 and 13, who got the opportunity to sit on the ring with Taylor and her belts.

Despite a queue of around 100 people waiting to meet her, Taylor took the time to speak to everyone. James asked her if she could offer his daughters some advice.

The response, he said, was “so brilliant”.

Taylor asked the girls what sports they played and, when one of the girls said she plays Gaelic football, Taylor offered advice that went far beyond the boxing ring.

“Don’t worry, you’re not going to win every game,” she told her, “you’re going to play bad some days. And you’re going to train bad. But train harder than everyone else. And if you want it more than anyone else, you will achieve what you want to achieve.”

For a young Westmeath family, it was advice they are unlikely to forget. And for James Crombie, after spending two weeks inside with the world of one of Ireland’s greatest-ever sports people, it was a fitting personal memory to take away from a historic night, one he had the extraordinary privilege of capturing through his lens.