Gavan Casey

CALLUM WALSH MOVES from room to room between his house and outdoor sheds until the next animal barks or brays or bellows.

It’s difficult to take a video-call when you’re running a small farm.

Walsh is, strictly speaking, off-duty in so far as is possible when you’re looking after dogs, donkeys, pigs, goats, ducks, chickens and, since this week, a horse, which Walsh and his UFC-star partner, Tabatha Ricci, have decided to name ‘Legacy’.

The fighting couple, who are also ambassadors for a local animal shelter, have built quite the stable on the land they recently purchased outside Los Angeles. They have subsequently started a YouTube channel, The Ultimate Farm, for their combined hundreds of thousands of followers.

Cork boxing prospect Walsh [15-0, 11KOs], who will face Mexican puncher Carlos Ocampo [38-3, 26KOs] in Last Vegas this Friday, doesn’t yet feel his hands are full. But the impending addition of two cows may twist his arm into seeking assistance.

“I was saying to Tabatha, I think I might need an apprentice,” laughs Walsh, 24. “Maybe get a couple of J1 students in to help me out!?”

Friday’s bout might even bring with it some relative peace and quiet. Walsh will headline UFC president Dana White’s first official boxing event, which will take place at the UFC’s Apex facility — effectively a media-ready warehouse with room for only a few hundred fans.

While the card will be broadcast on Paramount+ as part of a new partnership between the streaming giant and White’s Zuffa Boxing outfit, it will feel low-key in comparison to the majority of Walsh’s professional contests to date.

It will certainly make for a sea-change from Walsh’s last fight, a unanimous-decision victory over Fernando Vargas Jr, which took place at an almost-full NFL stadium in Vegas as the chief-support bout to Terence Crawford’s victory over Canelo Alvarez.

Walsh admitted to The 42 after that victory that he had felt a degree of performance anxiety such was the magnitude of the event at Allegiant Stadium. And he’s hopeful that next Friday will feel almost like home by comparison, a throwback to the halls of Glanmire or Dublin where he initially caught the eye as a hard-hitting teenager.

“I think I’ll enjoy fighting at The Apex,” Walsh says. “Fighting on that Canelo-Crawford card, being the co-main event on such a big card, was a massive opportunity. It gave me a massive experience and I maybe proved to myself that I can fight in front of a crowd that size, still go out there and perform.

Even though I didn’t feel my best, I was still able to go out there and win 10 rounds, win the fight, and get the job done in front of 72,000 people.

“So, I feel like fighting in The Apex, I’m gonna enjoy it. It’s going to be a couple hundred people, y’know?

“I’ll be able to hear my corner very clearly. I’ll be able to hear my opponent’s corner, even though they probably won’t be speaking English”, Walsh smiles. “But I’ll still be able to to hear them. I think it’ll be a cool thing. It might feel like sparring, it’ll nearly feel like fighting in a gym or something.

“But I’ve grown up fighting in small halls, small venues, and random places.”

Another change for Walsh on Friday: he’ll fight up at middleweight (160lbs) for the first time rather than his typical light-middleweight (154) category. Opponent Ocampo is in the same boat, though, and so won’t carry a natural size advantage to the ring.

White’s promotional company, Zuffa Boxing, insist that they will recognise only boxing’s eight traditional divisions.

“It was either 147 or 160, and I’m not gonna make 147,” Walsh laughs. “I think it’s the same thing. I’ve six more pounds that I don’t have to cut so I’m just getting to eat a bit better. I’m eating well, I’m feeling strong.

“It’s a new organisation but it’s basically just another fight to me. I don’t really think about the weight. I mean, I’ve never thought about weight. I’ve never thought, like, ‘Oh, I wouldn’t fight at this weight.’ It’s just a fight, y’know? Tell me when and where and I’ll show up like I’ve always done.”

Dana White has previously stated his intention not to work with boxing’s four recognised sanctioning bodies, the WBC, the WBA, the IBF and the WBO. He wishes for Zuffa Boxing to become a disruptor and, eventually, to have its own worthwhile world championship.

The UFC president will likely be disabused of this notion in time, and Walsh is of the understanding that he will still be able to challenge for a recognised world title at 154 pounds should the opportunity present itself.

World-ranked at light-middleweight, but likely to campaign as a middleweight on future Zuffa cards, Walsh believes he can be flexible with future opportunities. At 24, and with just 15 professional fights to his name, he can afford to wait for the cards to fall in any case.

“I’m still at 154, I’m still ranked. I’m just not sure how it’ll work with the rankings and all that. Obviously, if there’s opportunities for me now at both weight classes, I’ll just fight in two weight classes.

“I think that’s interesting. It’s very exciting. So, yeah, who knows? But you know me: any fight that comes up, I’ll take.”

Walsh’s primary aim for 2026 is simply to fight as regularly as is possible.

He’s open to returning on St Patrick’s Weekend provided he comes through Friday’s bout with the dangerous Ocampo uninjured, and he intends to fight a handful of times over the next 12 months.

After all, those pigs get through a lot of feed.

“I’ll tell you one thing: houses over here are not cheap, y’know what I mean?” Walsh laughs from his recently purchased farmhouse. “So, if you buy a house here, you’d want to have another couple of fights lined up.

“I have a roof over my head but there’s a mortgage and stuff to be paying — we didn’t buy it in cash!

“This year, I just want to keep showing my face, keep fighting, keep performing, and let the fans know that I’m here to fight — but here to fight consistently.

“I’m not one of those fellas who’s gonna show up in a main event and then just disappear until a year and a half later. I want people to know that I’m always here to to to put on a show.

“I really want to look back on on on the year and be like, ‘I got a nice bit done,’ y’know what I mean?”