AN OLD EAMON Dunphy quote about a young John Giles springs to mind when assessing Callum Walsh’s career to this point.
“Everyone in the city knew about him but nobody had seen him,” an emotional Dunphy told the Second Captains podcast in 2013, describing how Giles’ reputation as a footballer around Dublin preceded him long before he was seen in stadiums or on television.
Cork light-middleweight Walsh [14-0, 11KOs] has a long way to go before he might belong to the same pantheon as Giles, but there are modern equivalences to his boxing story.
With one homecoming bout in Dublin aside, the Los Angeles-based Walsh has fought almost exclusively at no-thanks o’clock Irish time. He’s one of the most-followed Irish athletes on social media and boasts name recognition particularly among Irish people in their 20s and 30s, but most of them search his name on social media the following morning to see if he won the night before.
Advertisement
There is a similar sense of Walsh within wider boxing, however, where time zones are not necessarily prohibitive but broadcast rights get in the way.
Promoted by Tom Loeffler — the man who brought Gennady Golovkin and the Klitschko brothers to the masses — and trained by Hall of Famer Freddie Roach, Walsh has for three years been a boxing passion project for UFC president Dana White, who is a friend of both.
Walsh’s fights have been shown almost exclusively on White’s personal streaming platform, UFC Fight Pass. You could probably count on one hand the number of boxing fans who pay 10 bob a month to subscribe to what is, for all intents and purposes, a UFC channel.
There’s a genuine case to be made that Walsh is better known within the world of MMA than he is within his own sport. He’s in a relationship with a UFC fighter, Tabatha ‘Baby Shark’ Ricci. He’s a close friend and occasional training partner of UFC legend Tony Ferguson. He hangs out backstage at UFC events, where he’s plugged on the organisation’s social media channels like a celebrity guest. It all suits Walsh grand: he’d tell you himself that he grew up more of a UFC fan than a boxing fan; he just happened to be a richly talented boxer.
But it all means that there is a genuine curiosity among boxing fans as to how good Walsh actually is, because the vast majority of them consume his fights exclusively as brief highlight clips on X or Instagram.
Tonight is Walsh’s night to prove that he’s not just some internet hype job, and any number from 330 million people around the world will be free to find out for themselves. In the wee hours of Sunday morning Irish time, the 24-year-old will take on a career-biggest test in the shape of fellow unbeaten puncher Fernando Vargas Jr [17-0, 15KOs], live on Netflix, on the undercard of Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez’s meeting with fellow generational great Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford.
Given his relationship with UFC president Dana White, who is effectively promoting this Las Vegas event in conjunction with Saudi Arabia’s boxing power broker Turki Alalshikh, Walsh will fight in the chief-support bout, right before the main event.
The eyes of the whole boxing world, and plenty of those from the wider world of sport, will be fixed on Walsh. In terms of an opportunity for an Irish boxer to raise their profile, only Katie Taylor’s second bout with Amanda Serrano — which was the chief support to the farce that was Jake Paul against Mike Tyson on Netflix — is comparable.
It’s a chance that Walsh cannot afford to let slip.
But the same goes for Vargas, who equally has his eye on a world-title breakthrough at light-middleweight. And a victory over Walsh, which would be considered a slight upset, would be transformative.
Nicknamed ‘El Feroz’, Vargas Jr is the Californian son of Mexican-American former two-time light-middleweight world champion Fernando Vargas.
Related Reads
'One more sleep and I can do everyone a favour and put that arrogant **** to sleep'
The bell, the blur, and the biggest all-Irish showdown in boxing history
'I still believe I can be world champion and I think tonight I showed a glimpse of that'
Junior can clearly bang — he has a knockout ratio of almost 90% from his 17 fights — but his level of opposition has been nothing to write home about. His only fight this year, a fourth-round victory over the 23-7 Argentinian Gonzalo Gaston Coria in May, ranks among his most impressive victories.
Still, given his name, record and undeniable power, a victory over Vargas would propel Walsh towards a world-title challenge, perhaps even as soon as his next bout.
The spoils are greater still, though. The chance to look good in front of a fair few million people doesn’t come around often, especially in boxing.
The night has star-making potential for the former Riverstown Boxing Club student, who has the chance to formally introduce himself to those who haven’t yet had a chance to watch him live.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
Career-biggest test on Netflix has star-making potential for Callum Walsh
AN OLD EAMON Dunphy quote about a young John Giles springs to mind when assessing Callum Walsh’s career to this point.
“Everyone in the city knew about him but nobody had seen him,” an emotional Dunphy told the Second Captains podcast in 2013, describing how Giles’ reputation as a footballer around Dublin preceded him long before he was seen in stadiums or on television.
Cork light-middleweight Walsh [14-0, 11KOs] has a long way to go before he might belong to the same pantheon as Giles, but there are modern equivalences to his boxing story.
With one homecoming bout in Dublin aside, the Los Angeles-based Walsh has fought almost exclusively at no-thanks o’clock Irish time. He’s one of the most-followed Irish athletes on social media and boasts name recognition particularly among Irish people in their 20s and 30s, but most of them search his name on social media the following morning to see if he won the night before.
There is a similar sense of Walsh within wider boxing, however, where time zones are not necessarily prohibitive but broadcast rights get in the way.
Promoted by Tom Loeffler — the man who brought Gennady Golovkin and the Klitschko brothers to the masses — and trained by Hall of Famer Freddie Roach, Walsh has for three years been a boxing passion project for UFC president Dana White, who is a friend of both.
Walsh’s fights have been shown almost exclusively on White’s personal streaming platform, UFC Fight Pass. You could probably count on one hand the number of boxing fans who pay 10 bob a month to subscribe to what is, for all intents and purposes, a UFC channel.
There’s a genuine case to be made that Walsh is better known within the world of MMA than he is within his own sport. He’s in a relationship with a UFC fighter, Tabatha ‘Baby Shark’ Ricci. He’s a close friend and occasional training partner of UFC legend Tony Ferguson. He hangs out backstage at UFC events, where he’s plugged on the organisation’s social media channels like a celebrity guest. It all suits Walsh grand: he’d tell you himself that he grew up more of a UFC fan than a boxing fan; he just happened to be a richly talented boxer.
But it all means that there is a genuine curiosity among boxing fans as to how good Walsh actually is, because the vast majority of them consume his fights exclusively as brief highlight clips on X or Instagram.
Tonight is Walsh’s night to prove that he’s not just some internet hype job, and any number from 330 million people around the world will be free to find out for themselves. In the wee hours of Sunday morning Irish time, the 24-year-old will take on a career-biggest test in the shape of fellow unbeaten puncher Fernando Vargas Jr [17-0, 15KOs], live on Netflix, on the undercard of Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez’s meeting with fellow generational great Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford.
Given his relationship with UFC president Dana White, who is effectively promoting this Las Vegas event in conjunction with Saudi Arabia’s boxing power broker Turki Alalshikh, Walsh will fight in the chief-support bout, right before the main event.
The eyes of the whole boxing world, and plenty of those from the wider world of sport, will be fixed on Walsh. In terms of an opportunity for an Irish boxer to raise their profile, only Katie Taylor’s second bout with Amanda Serrano — which was the chief support to the farce that was Jake Paul against Mike Tyson on Netflix — is comparable.
It’s a chance that Walsh cannot afford to let slip.
But the same goes for Vargas, who equally has his eye on a world-title breakthrough at light-middleweight. And a victory over Walsh, which would be considered a slight upset, would be transformative.
Nicknamed ‘El Feroz’, Vargas Jr is the Californian son of Mexican-American former two-time light-middleweight world champion Fernando Vargas.
Junior can clearly bang — he has a knockout ratio of almost 90% from his 17 fights — but his level of opposition has been nothing to write home about. His only fight this year, a fourth-round victory over the 23-7 Argentinian Gonzalo Gaston Coria in May, ranks among his most impressive victories.
Still, given his name, record and undeniable power, a victory over Vargas would propel Walsh towards a world-title challenge, perhaps even as soon as his next bout.
The spoils are greater still, though. The chance to look good in front of a fair few million people doesn’t come around often, especially in boxing.
The night has star-making potential for the former Riverstown Boxing Club student, who has the chance to formally introduce himself to those who haven’t yet had a chance to watch him live.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Boxing Callum Walsh chance of a lifetime