Ali 'The Greatest' but Maguire the latest to win in Croke Park

Aged 30, Ali - who had iconic wins against George Foreman and Joe Frazier to come in his career - accepted a reported £300,000 offer by Kerry promoter Michael 'Butty' Sugrue to fight in Ireland.Battling a cold, Ali secured an 11th-round victory over Lewis and while just 17,000 made their way through the turnstiles - 15,000 short of the break-even mark -others were more creative in how they entered.One of those attending by conventional means was Kilkenny hurling great Eddie Keher in a year in which he collected the fourth of his six All-Ireland senior medals.A boxing fan, Keher recalls burning the midnight oil in his youth with his father, tuning into radio commentary of heavyweight greats Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano and then Ali.With the promotional push for Croke Park in full swing, an idea was hatched to have the pair meet at the Kilternan Hotel - "a high point" in his life."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," Keher told BBC Sport NI's GAA Social podcast."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."After British and Commonwealth bantamweight title defeats, Maguire would avenge a previous loss against David Needham in 1975 to get his hands on the Lonsdale Belt - and in the build-up, reunited with Ali at Wembley.In August 1977, they met again in the Grosvenor House Hotel for a testimonial in honour of Ali's friend Paddy Monaghan, the Fermanagh-born bare-knuckle boxer.By then, Maguire had drawn with European champion Daniel Trioulaire, while a second crack at the title brought a loss to Franco Zurlo before defeat by Johnny Owen proved his final stand."There were ups and down," Maguire says of his career, "but it's one I'm proud of."While his days in the ring were over, he would remain connected to the sport, serving as a member of the British Boxing Board of Control's Northern Ireland Council.On Saturday, Maguire will watch from home as Taylor, a trailblazer for women's boxing, makes the same walk as Ali."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."