CALLUM WALSH PASSED the trickiest test of his almost-five-year professional boxing career, but didn’t exactly catch the eye in victory over England’s former European champion Tyler Denny at Dublin’s 3Arena.
Cork man Walsh was forced to pick himself off the canvas from an unusual-looking knockdown in the first round before dropping Denny hard in the second, and he cruised from that point onwards to a points win on scores of 98-91 x2 and 96-90.
In the co-main event to Aaron McKenna’s middleweight world-title fight against Italy’s Etinosa Oliha, the 25-year-old Walsh, now 17-0 (11KOs), was fighting for the second time in the same division (160 lbs): his promoters Zuffa Boxing, run by his long-time sponsor and ostensible co-promoter, UFC president Dana White, don’t recognise his better-fitting light-middleweight category (154lbs).
The Cobh native faced a fully fledged middleweight in Denny (now 23-4-4, 1KO), 10 years his senior, who has in recent years sullied the undefeated records of several unbeaten up-and-comers in the UK, including the heavily fancied Felix Cash in a European title clash in 2024.
Walsh, who doesn’t yet anatomically resemble a middleweight — while in great nick by the standards of the rest of the world, he appeared fleshier than usual at Friday’s weigh-in — was well worth the wide gap on the judges’ scorecards, citing an injury to his right hand as complication post-fight.
But his victory did little to whet the appetite for a world-title assault on the winner of Saturday night’s middleweight main event between Aaron McKenna and Etinosa Oliha, albeit there is hardly a rush for Walsh to launch that particular bid aged just 25.
‘King Callum’ began with typical, high-paced aggression and landed significant work on Denny before he found himself on the canvas in the first.
The knockdown awarded to Denny was fortuitous, Walsh bent over under an attack and eventually coaxed to a knee as Denny both threw shots and leant on him heavily. The Great Islander laughed it off when it was scored by referee Emile Tiedt, who wasn’t outside his rights to do so.
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Walsh continued his attacks apace, sending Denny sprawling to the canvas with a powerful left hook during an exchange in the second round. The man from England’s West Midlands, his legs initially wobbly as he peeled himself off the floor, showed excellent conditioning to rediscover his footing. But the fight was broadly one-way traffic from that point onwards.
Denny, while conspiciously the naturally larger man, has just one knockout victory to his name and didn’t have sufficient power for Walsh to respect, leading to something of a processionary victory for the untroubled Cork man.
Walsh, however, didn’t exactly light the 3Arena on fire, his left-handed attacks from the southpaw stance routinely flying over the head of the ducking Denny. He was unable to capture the lightning in the bottle that was his second-round knockdown, instead rather labouring until the seventh round when, all threat truly removed, he dropped his hands entirely and began to tee off on Denny at will.
Referee Tiedt deducted both men a point at the same time in the eighth — Walsh for holding, apparently, which drew boos from the home audience, and Denny for use of his head, which also seemed harsh. It was a pointless excercise in grandstanding by the referee, although it annoyed Walsh enough to unleash arguably his best flurry of the bout upon the resumption, which appeared to briefly bother Denny.
The Englishman, however, was wily enough to spoil his way home the rest of the way, another head clash opening a deep-looking cut on Walsh’s left eyebrow, with the home fighter hardly hiding his annoyance at the end of a ninth round in which he was again safely on top.
Walsh attempted to pour it on Denny at the end of the 10th and final round, landing plenty, but his power has not yet carried up from 154 pounds to 160, and the Englishman was experienced enough to weather the storm.
No doubt existed in the arena when Walsh’s hand was raised in victory, but some of the momentum he had gained as an exciting 154-pounder has certainly been lost in his last two wins up at 160.
In the third-last bout of the evening, Irish amateur legend Joe Ward (now 13-1, 8KOs) returned from a two-year ring absence to earn a career-best victory over English-based, Russian-Dutch knockout artist Artjom Kasparian (14-1, 12KOs), upon whom he inflicted a first professional defeat.
Joe Ward lands a jab on Artjom Kasparian. Gary Carr / INPHO
Gary Carr / INPHO / INPHO
Light-heavyweight Ward, a three-time European amateur champion and three-time World Championship silver medallist, overcame visible rust to outmanoeuvre Kasparian, the Dublin crowd roaring him through a hairy second third of the bout en route to a unanimous-decision victory on scores of 97-93 x2, 96-94).
Ward, 32, started with customary class, outboxing Kasparian from the outside, but he was soon drawn into a war of a attrition from which there appeared no escape.
While Ward was never truly hurt, Kasparian began to thud home heavy shots from the third round towards the halfway point, with Ward almost tripping over his front foot as he appeared to gas drastically.
But the Westmeath man, a former Olympian, found a timely second wind, removing himself from the ropes and using his vastly superior footwork to find the angles from which he could hurt Kasparian from the sixth round onwards.
During the second half of the bout, a Ward victory became almost inevitable, the Moate native teeing off on Kasparian who had few answers to his superior technical ability.
Ward, who looked in peak condition at Friday’s weigh-in, finished the bout by far the stronger, earning a deserved unanimous decision.
Earlier, Stevie McKenna (17-1, 16KOs), the older brother of Saturday’s headliner and world-title challenger Aaron, took just 90 seconds to dispose of an overmatched Owen O’Neill (14-3, 1KOs), ending their middleweight bout halfway through the first round with a right hand upstairs.
McKenna’s call for a fight with Callum Walsh, who was yet to feature, was met with rapturous acclaim by those in attendance, and might be a more appealing prospect at this juncture than Walsh facing Aaron McKenna should he overcome Oliha in the main event.
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Callum Walsh eases past Tyler Denny, while Joe Ward gains second wind to earn career-best victory
CALLUM WALSH PASSED the trickiest test of his almost-five-year professional boxing career, but didn’t exactly catch the eye in victory over England’s former European champion Tyler Denny at Dublin’s 3Arena.
Cork man Walsh was forced to pick himself off the canvas from an unusual-looking knockdown in the first round before dropping Denny hard in the second, and he cruised from that point onwards to a points win on scores of 98-91 x2 and 96-90.
In the co-main event to Aaron McKenna’s middleweight world-title fight against Italy’s Etinosa Oliha, the 25-year-old Walsh, now 17-0 (11KOs), was fighting for the second time in the same division (160 lbs): his promoters Zuffa Boxing, run by his long-time sponsor and ostensible co-promoter, UFC president Dana White, don’t recognise his better-fitting light-middleweight category (154lbs).
The Cobh native faced a fully fledged middleweight in Denny (now 23-4-4, 1KO), 10 years his senior, who has in recent years sullied the undefeated records of several unbeaten up-and-comers in the UK, including the heavily fancied Felix Cash in a European title clash in 2024.
Walsh, who doesn’t yet anatomically resemble a middleweight — while in great nick by the standards of the rest of the world, he appeared fleshier than usual at Friday’s weigh-in — was well worth the wide gap on the judges’ scorecards, citing an injury to his right hand as complication post-fight.
But his victory did little to whet the appetite for a world-title assault on the winner of Saturday night’s middleweight main event between Aaron McKenna and Etinosa Oliha, albeit there is hardly a rush for Walsh to launch that particular bid aged just 25.
‘King Callum’ began with typical, high-paced aggression and landed significant work on Denny before he found himself on the canvas in the first.
The knockdown awarded to Denny was fortuitous, Walsh bent over under an attack and eventually coaxed to a knee as Denny both threw shots and leant on him heavily. The Great Islander laughed it off when it was scored by referee Emile Tiedt, who wasn’t outside his rights to do so.
Walsh continued his attacks apace, sending Denny sprawling to the canvas with a powerful left hook during an exchange in the second round. The man from England’s West Midlands, his legs initially wobbly as he peeled himself off the floor, showed excellent conditioning to rediscover his footing. But the fight was broadly one-way traffic from that point onwards.
Denny, while conspiciously the naturally larger man, has just one knockout victory to his name and didn’t have sufficient power for Walsh to respect, leading to something of a processionary victory for the untroubled Cork man.
Walsh, however, didn’t exactly light the 3Arena on fire, his left-handed attacks from the southpaw stance routinely flying over the head of the ducking Denny. He was unable to capture the lightning in the bottle that was his second-round knockdown, instead rather labouring until the seventh round when, all threat truly removed, he dropped his hands entirely and began to tee off on Denny at will.
Referee Tiedt deducted both men a point at the same time in the eighth — Walsh for holding, apparently, which drew boos from the home audience, and Denny for use of his head, which also seemed harsh. It was a pointless excercise in grandstanding by the referee, although it annoyed Walsh enough to unleash arguably his best flurry of the bout upon the resumption, which appeared to briefly bother Denny.
The Englishman, however, was wily enough to spoil his way home the rest of the way, another head clash opening a deep-looking cut on Walsh’s left eyebrow, with the home fighter hardly hiding his annoyance at the end of a ninth round in which he was again safely on top.
Walsh attempted to pour it on Denny at the end of the 10th and final round, landing plenty, but his power has not yet carried up from 154 pounds to 160, and the Englishman was experienced enough to weather the storm.
No doubt existed in the arena when Walsh’s hand was raised in victory, but some of the momentum he had gained as an exciting 154-pounder has certainly been lost in his last two wins up at 160.
In the third-last bout of the evening, Irish amateur legend Joe Ward (now 13-1, 8KOs) returned from a two-year ring absence to earn a career-best victory over English-based, Russian-Dutch knockout artist Artjom Kasparian (14-1, 12KOs), upon whom he inflicted a first professional defeat.
Light-heavyweight Ward, a three-time European amateur champion and three-time World Championship silver medallist, overcame visible rust to outmanoeuvre Kasparian, the Dublin crowd roaring him through a hairy second third of the bout en route to a unanimous-decision victory on scores of 97-93 x2, 96-94).
Ward, 32, started with customary class, outboxing Kasparian from the outside, but he was soon drawn into a war of a attrition from which there appeared no escape.
While Ward was never truly hurt, Kasparian began to thud home heavy shots from the third round towards the halfway point, with Ward almost tripping over his front foot as he appeared to gas drastically.
But the Westmeath man, a former Olympian, found a timely second wind, removing himself from the ropes and using his vastly superior footwork to find the angles from which he could hurt Kasparian from the sixth round onwards.
During the second half of the bout, a Ward victory became almost inevitable, the Moate native teeing off on Kasparian who had few answers to his superior technical ability.
Ward, who looked in peak condition at Friday’s weigh-in, finished the bout by far the stronger, earning a deserved unanimous decision.
Earlier, Stevie McKenna (17-1, 16KOs), the older brother of Saturday’s headliner and world-title challenger Aaron, took just 90 seconds to dispose of an overmatched Owen O’Neill (14-3, 1KOs), ending their middleweight bout halfway through the first round with a right hand upstairs.
McKenna’s call for a fight with Callum Walsh, who was yet to feature, was met with rapturous acclaim by those in attendance, and might be a more appealing prospect at this juncture than Walsh facing Aaron McKenna should he overcome Oliha in the main event.
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