Ali fought at Croke Park in 1972 — Paddy Maguire was the last winner there; Katie Taylor to make final ringwalk on Saturday

When Katie Taylor makes her final career ringwalk on Saturday at Croke Park for the undisputed light-welterweight crown against Flora Pili, 54 years will have passed since Muhammad Ali boxed Al 'Blue' Lewis at the redeveloped venue on 19 July 1972. Belfast's Paddy Maguire, who beat France's Guy Caudron on points, was the last fighter to record a win on that bill after Ali stopped Lewis in the 11th round.

Croke Park is primarily a stadium for Gaelic games but has hosted other sports, and on that balmy Wednesday evening in 1972 punches replaced points as Ali headlined. Despite Ali being the main attraction, only about 17,000 people attended — 15,000 short of the break-even mark — and some spectators found unconventional ways to get in. Maguire recalled the long gap since boxing last visited the ground, saying: "It's hard to believe it has taken so long for boxing to return to Croke Park."

Maguire's path to Ali's undercard started in the amateur ranks, where he won featherweight silver at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Jamaica, a medal he described as "hard won as they were all tough fights". Turning professional prompted a move to London and a partnership with manager Paddy Byrne. That relationship, Maguire said, led to both him and Pat McCormack securing places on Ali's undercard, which also included Donegal's Paddy Doherty, John Conteh and Joe Bugner.

Reflecting on the opportunity, Maguire said: "Pat and myself were great friends and had the same manager, so it was great for us to be on such a huge bill." He added: "To be a man from the Kashmir Road in Belfast, fighting on Muhammad Ali's bill was great, but I could never understand why there were so few Irish fighters involved."

Kilkenny hurling great Eddie Keher, who won six All-Ireland senior hurling titles and had collected the fourth of those medals in the same year, attended the event and later described meeting Ali at the Kilternan Hotel. Keher told BBC Sport NI's GAA Social podcast: "I was dumbstruck when I saw him [Ali]. He was different from what I imagined because he wasn't the flamboyant guy we'd seen on television," and recalled: "The press were outside and I had two hurls and a sliotar [ball]. I was supposed to teach him how to play hurling, but he was finding it hard to hit the ball with two hands, so he was hitting it with one hand like a tennis racquet. "He was still the ordinary guy but then he came up close to me and said, 'we'll put on a show for these guys' so he went to hit me with his hurl and I put up mine to save me. Then he was going around fencing with the hurl and became the Muhammad Ali we knew."

Behind the scenes, organisers had trouble sourcing fight gloves, prompting a last-minute effort to have some sent from England and a late start to the undercard that ultimately left Maguire waiting until after the main event to box. Maguire explained his placement on the card: "There weren't too many left by that stage, but I ended up on last as I was seen as an exciting, all-action pressure fighter," adding: "Maybe their idea was to have me on last to try and keep people there." He also remembers Ali as a "lovely man."

Maguire's subsequent career included mixed results in title fights before he avenged a previous defeat to David Needham in 1975 to secure the Lonsdale Belt, and in the build-up to that period he reunited with Ali at Wembley. The pair met again in August 1977 at the Grosvenor House Hotel for a testimonial in honour of Ali's friend Paddy Monaghan. By then Maguire had drawn with European champion Daniel Trioulaire, suffered a loss to Franco Zurlo in a second European title attempt and finished his career after defeat by Johnny Owen; he later served on the British Boxing Board of Control's Northern Ireland Council. On his career he said: "There were ups and down," Maguire says, "but it's one I'm proud of."

Maguire will watch from home on Saturday as Taylor makes the same walk Ali once did into Croke Park and reflected on what the 1972 bill still means to him and his family: "I've had the opportunity to tell my kids and grandchildren about my time there, so for those boxing this time, they can do the same one day," he said. "Katie Taylor has had a great career and deserves her big night, but hopefully it's not another 50 years before boxing's back in Croke Park."