For the first time as a professional boxer, Katie Taylor will emerge from the bowels of 3 Arena on Saturday night in Dublin. Perhaps it would all hit her then – the enormity of what she had done to boxing in Ireland, and to women’s boxing in general.

Knowing Taylor, it probably won’t show on her face, but maybe there will be a flash. Since turning pro, Taylor has wanted to return to Ireland to fight and let the fans in her hometown, where she is a huge star, see her compete as a champion. But for years that seemed unlikely.

At the age of fifteen, Taylor fought in Ireland’s first women’s amateur fight. Now, at the age of 36, after hundreds of amateur fights and 22 professional fights, she will be back in one of the biggest professional fights the country has seen. Taylor, the undisputed lightweight champion, will take on Chantelle Cameron for Cameron’s undisputed junior middleweight championship in one of the biggest fights of the year