MOBBED BY A crowd of hundreds and swimming in a sea of selfies and hugs, Dean Walsh continues to persevere in boxing.
On Saturday night, almost eleven years on from his first of six Irish Elite titles, the Wexford light-middleweight, now 30, made his belated professional debut at the SETU Arena in Waterford.
Such was the travelling support for the popular Wexford Town fighter, Walsh’s bout took place after the main event to ensure a continued crowd in the venue and he repaid their patience and backing in double-quick time.
A mixture of bodyshots and fast counters sent Hungarian journeyman Tamas Horvath [8-11, 4 KOs] to the canvas four times in the opening round before it was waved off by referee Pádraig Ó Reachtagáin. In truth, Horvath, stopped in each and every one of his defeats, was always going to fall early – such is the nature of professional debuts in the sport – but Walsh did still look impressively sharp on a night characterised more by blood-and-guts wars than the top-level boxing he would be more familiar with.
That’s not to say it wasn’t special for Walsh who confessed in the dressing rooms afterwards that “that was probably my best night in boxing.
“It’s hard to compare. Obviously, my first Elite title with my grandad there, that won’t be beat. But in terms of atmosphere and crowd-wise, I think that was amazing.
“Jimmy [Payne, coach] said ‘enjoy it, it’s your first, you’ve only one of them’. It was amazing.”
Fighting under the Conlan Boxing banner, managers Mick and Jamie will have been impressed by the performance but perhaps even more so by the crowd brought by the well-liked Walsh.
“My legs went a bit jelly when I walked out first but it was amazing,” he laughs, “It was absolute crazy, I couldn’t believe it.
“My mind was changing all day. I knew there was a big crowd coming down. When I started out I said if I sell a certain amount of tickets I’d be happy enough but I sold about four or five times what I had in my head, y’know?
“The people from Wexford, even on the nights in the Elites and stuff, they were always there, but this was just something different.
“I think, for my second fight, I’ll do it a bit differently with the tickets and stuff. It’s my first time, I did a good job with them, like, but there’s a lot of stress as well with the tickets. It worked out in the end, if that makes sense, but I’ll do it a bit differently next time.
“But I wouldn’t have changed this last eight or ten weeks for the world, y’know?”
A mainstay of the Irish team in the mid-2010s, Walsh won four consecutive Elite titles and bronze at the 2015 European Championships but, in a tumultuous time for Irish boxing during which his uncle Billy infamously departed for the USA national team, Walsh’s career would fall apart. Narrowly failing to qualify for the Rio Games, misbehaviour on trips, heavy drinking, a series of serious brushes with the law, and the rise of top young talents like Aidan Walsh and Kieran Molloy saw the St Ibar’s/St Joseph’s clubman fade largely into boxing obscurity.
Having cleaned up his act and looking to start afresh, Walsh had actually signed pro terms with Leonard Gunning’s Boxing Ireland Promotions back in 2020. However, a ten-month stint behind bars for two unprovoked assault charges from 2017 mixed with the COVID-19 pandemic and Gunning’s withdrawal from the scene saw his long career take another twist.
Remaining on the straight and narrow and remaining in the amateurs, Walsh’s resurgence surprised many. Following wins at the Haringey, Celtic, and Algarve Box Cups in 2022, the returning veteran sensationally outhustled his fancied Olympic bronze medal-winning namesake Aidan [no relation] en-route to winning the 2023 Irish Elite title.
This saw him selected for the European Games in Poland, the first of three qualifiers for Paris Games. Defeat to Italian Salvatore Cavallaro prevented the fairytale happening in the ring before decisions outside it completely closed the door. A broken hand suffered whilst claiming his sixth Irish Elite title hampered his ability to be assessed ahead of the final two tournaments and the IABA High Performance Unit instead chose Aidan Walsh, who subsequently qualified, to compete in Italy and Thailand – a decision described as discrimination by the Wexford County Board.
Formerly seen as something of a hothead, Walsh himself never commented on the process and would never fight as an amateur again, instead turning pro with Conlan Boxing in October of this year.
Reflecting on the past few years, the three-weight Irish champion admits that “when I got out and I won my first Elite again, beat Aidan Walsh… I was only wanting to use a few fights as a warm-up before turning pro because I wasn’t fighting for three year. Then I won the Elites and, sure, one thing led to another, the European Games and stuff like that – and then I won the Elites again!”
“I just got injured and I just thought I was gonna be eligible to go to the second qualifier but I wasn’t and that just sort of… I didn’t know what I wanted, did I want to go back to the Elites again? Obviously, the goal was to qualify for the Olympic Games but I’ve buried that now and I’m just enjoying training now.”
“For me, it was, I was at a crossroads in boxing. I was kind of like ‘do I give the Olympic cycle a go again?’ But I wasn’t really enjoying it back up in Dublin, I really wasn’t.
“I was kind of turning away from boxing and I was thinking ‘how do I do something different that would keep me in love with boxing?’ As soon as I turned pro, the first training session, I was like ‘right, I just have a new goal, a new target’. I feel revived, y’know? And that’s the truth.”
A PVC fitter by day (“it has to be done!”), Walsh believes his switch to the pros has breathed new life into his relationship with a sport he has frequently described as his saviour.
“When you’re doing something for so long and you don’t enjoy it, what’s the point doing it?” he asks. “Because you’re just going to be in bad form all the time.
“But, for me, I really am enjoying boxing, getting up in the morning and going on my runs before work then you’re going to work and then coming back training. Three days a week down in Waterford and then three days back with my dad, we’re all on the same training programme.”
“I haven’t missed any sessions, I like getting up in the morning, I like eating good food – something I wasn’t doing a couple of year back!”
Saturday night allowed Walsh to witness the full gamut of emotions that come with pro boxing. Minutes before his own joyous debut, his teammate, Waterford welterweight Dylan Moran, was knocked out in the second round of his main event shoot-out with Tyrone McKenna – a cast-iron certainty to win Irish Fight of the Year.
“I’d be good friends with Dylan, I train alongside Dylan,” he explains.
“I had to adapt to that too because we were in the same changing room and seeing him just getting beat…. and I was in next! Y’know, I felt so bad for him, but, I suppose, it’s an individual sport, y’know, but, like, Dylan will be back up on the horse again and he’ll have big nights to come.”
For Walsh, considering both his age and his talent, the big nights could be coming sooner rather than later.
Pointing to another former top amateur who has moved quickly into the top end of the domestic scene, he notes how “I need to be like Emmet Brennan, he turned pro at 32.”
“That’s the plan, Mick said to me that I’m going to have to move fast. Two or three fights to edge your way into it but then I have to lift-off ‘cos of my age. If I was 21, 22, I’d have that time but, right now, I don’t really have the time.
“I know I’m good enough to bring the big nights back to Wexford and hopefully get something going there – win the Irish title and go into the European scene, that’s the plan.
“Look it, I’m in the right hands with Mick and stuff and my coaches. Their plan is to get me out, I think in February, and then hopefully get me in the 3Arena in March. That’s the plan anyway.
“But again, as I’ve said, my main thing here is that I’m really enjoying boxing again and I can’t ask for anything better, really.”
He will definitely go on in the pro game. He is actually in control of his own destiny now and not gonna be blindsided for selection and such . Such a kind hearted and likeable talented warrior that has learned from his mistakes should get all the support and plaudits we can give him.
Up Wexford…Well done !