MAY PROMISED SO much but produced mostly heartbreak.
Back-to-back Saturdays saw world title fights for Katie Taylor and Michael Conlan end in disaster, Taylor edged out by deserved champion Chantelle Cameron at Dublin’s 3Arena and Conlan blasted out in the fifth round by Alberto Lopez at the SSE Arena in his hometown of Belfast.
Even Taylor’s undercard in Dublin felt like something of a purge of our best professional talent: time finally caught up with Brisbane-based Kilcullen light-middleweight Denis Hogan, who at 38 has been there and done it without quite ever getting the t-shirt. Hogan likely bowed out — typically graciously — in a points defeat to Liverpool’s JJ Metcalf.
His fellow Kildare man, 27-year-old Naas lightweight Gary Cully, is signed to Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom and felt predestined to eventually take the reins from Taylor in becoming the face on the poster around Dublin. The atmosphere for his chief support bout with Mexican puncher Jose Felix was befitting of a main event and it felt as though we were getting a sneak peak into a bright future for the pro sport in the capital — until Felix pulled the red carpet from under Cully in the third round.
Cully now faces a rebuild in which he will likely be used to as an acid test for a couple of his fellow Matchroom up-and-comers. Conlan took some time to mull over his future after what was his second stoppage defeat and he has already stated his intention to have one last crack at the featherweight summit. Taylor, too, will return to the ring in the autumn against either Cameron or Amanda Serrano but, like Conlan, one more defeat at this juncture of her career will be the cue to roll the credits.
To a degree, May felt like at least the beginning of the end of one era of Irish pro boxing. And in a way, June already feels like the start of another.
Even prior to his explosive victory over veteran Carson Jones in a headline bout in California in the wee hours of Saturday morning, Cork light-middle Callum Walsh — now 7-0(6KOs) — had unapologetically stated that he intends to become “the new face of Irish boxing”.
There is an element of bombast to such a statement from a 22-year-old fledgling pro but, on the other hand, there is cause to believe the cocksure Cobh man Walsh.
🇮🇪 @KINGCALLUMWALSH is BACK!
— danawhite (@danawhite) June 8, 2023
Watch #HFNBoxing LIVE this Friday at 10pmET on @UFCFightPass pic.twitter.com/nUyEoMoVWH
His polished fourth-round stoppage of the 36-year-old former welterweight gatekeeper Jones showed a promising blend of poise, precision and power. Equally pertinent for the moment, though, is the fact that Walsh has constructed an infrastructure around him that will give him the best possible chance of success provided he can continue to hold up his side of the bargain as an athlete.
For starters, he is trained by Hall of Famer Freddie Roach in the famed Wild Card gym in Hollywood, where Walsh now lives.
He is promoted by Tom Loeffler, the American who previously brought boxers such as the Klitschko brothers and Gennady Golovkin to the global masses.
He is also ostensibly co-promoted by Loeffler’s close friend, UFC president Dana White who, while not directly involved in boxing, has taken a shine to the Cork man and plugs him ad nauseum on social media before his fights.
And that those fights are broadcast live on White’s UFC Fight Pass streaming platform — on which Walsh has become a headline act — has already exposed him to a significant portion of ‘fight fans’, albeit most of them of the MMA variety.
GIVE THE KING HIS GOLD!!!@KINGCALLUMWALSH with his SIXTH TKO as he climbs to 7-0!!
— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) June 10, 2023
Cork, Ireland, you've got yourself a champion!!!#HFNBoxing pic.twitter.com/taY9EVwGVm
Crucially, too, Walsh has a grasp on social media and how to harness it in his favour. He’s comfortable in front of the camera, he’s got a sense of humour, and he’s not afraid to extoll his own virtues as a prizefighter; his ring moniker is ‘King’, after all.
Back home in Cork, he has already starting to become a household name to the sports observers in the 15-30 demographic that will ultimately pay his bills one day, all going well.
To put it simply, Callum Walsh is ahead of the game. Time will tell if he can reach the top of it.
His emergence might strike as being reminiscent of that of Monaghan middleweight Aaron McKenna [16-0, 8KOs], who also turned professional in California as a teenager in 2017.
‘The Silencer’, still just 23, moved home to Smithborough during the pandemic with his 26-year-old brother Stevie [13-0, 12KOs] and their father Fergal. Aaron eventually left Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions and both boxers linked up with Mick Hennessy in England.
Both Aaron and Stevie have experienced periods of inactivity and frustration since Hennessy’s TV deal with Channel Five hit the skids, but Tyson Fury’s former promoter has now landed the brothers on Sky Sports — where Aaron will take on a significant challenge this Friday night.
The Irish boxing brothers you NEED to watch out for! ⚠️
— Sky Sports Boxing (@SkySportsBoxing) June 12, 2023
✨ 🇮🇪 @stevie_mckenna & @Aaronmckenna99 🇮🇪 ✨ pic.twitter.com/jWiwNFYPW1
Originally scheduled to face Sheffield’s Shakiel Thompson [10-0, 6KOs] in something of a grudge match, The Silencer will instead now square off with unbeaten Angolan banger Uisma Lima [10-0, 8KOs] for a WBC rankings belt after Thompson withdrew through injury.
It will moonlight as an opportunity for McKenna to demonstrate to a large audience his significant boxing pedigree against an opponent who will seek to fire back at the Farney man with interest.
Victory for McKenna will serve as a reminder of what all of the hype was about to begin with, and it the idea of he and Stevie building their still-young careers on Sky is an enticing one.
Another highly touted Irish prospect who recently parted company with his Stateside promoter is Limerick welterweight Paddy Donovan [11-0, 8KOs].
Frustrated by his relative inactivity over the last couple of years — Donovan has fought just four times since August 2021 — the stylish 24-year-old has swapped Bob Arum’s Top Rank for Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom.
The deal was agreed in principle before Donovan’s bout on the Taylor-Cameron card in Dublin, but it became binding when the Andy Lee-trained Donovan disposed of a career-toughest test in the form of Sheffield’s Sam O’maison at the 3Arena.
Once described by Arum as “The best-looking fighter since Muhammad Ali”, and praised as “the most talented fighter” that trainer Lee has worked with, Donovan has the raw materials to make a dent at 147 pounds.
He also has a burgeoning rivalry with Waterford’s Dylan Moran [18-1, 8KOs] which, if it should ever culminate in a straightener, will garner plenty of mainstream attention in Ireland. So too would an eventual pro showdown with his amateur arch nemesis Kieran Molloy [5-0, 3KOs] of Galway, who is beginning to kick up a bit of dust in the race to become the poster boy of a new professional boxing era in this country.
Slightly more established in his own journey through the paid ranks is Belfast’s Caoimhín Agyarko, Donovan’s Matchroom stablemate who moved to 13-0(7KOs) with a shutout points win on the Taylor-Cameron show.
Having picked up a couple of rankings belts at 160 and 154, ‘Black Thunder’ intends to have his say in the latter division and he strikes as the kind of boxer who will only truly hit his stride when he’s in tough.
All-time Irish amateur great Joe Ward [9-1, 5KOS] of Westmeath, meanwhile, has rebounded nicely from the ACL tear which ruined his pro debut at Madison Square Garden in 2019 to reach the fringes of world-title contention.
Dublin light-welter Pierce O’Leary [12-0, 7KOs], who fights on BT Sport under Frank Warren’s Queensberry banner, is beginning to live up to his ‘Big Bang’ moniker at just 23.
How quick was that? 😮💨
— Boxing on BT Sport 🥊 (@BTSportBoxing) May 27, 2023
Fantastic work from Pierce O'Leary 💥#LopezConlan pic.twitter.com/uLC6qPSWs5
At the other end of his career, then, is Donegal’s Jason Quigley [20-2, 14KOs], who is gearing up for a make-or-break fight with Edgar Berlanga [20-0, 16KOs] at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in Berlanga’s hometown of New York on 24 June.
Like Paddy Donovan, Berlanga recently swapped Top Rank for Matchroom after his remarkable run of 16 first-round knockouts in a row gave way to an underwhelming spell in which his last four victories have gone the distance.
And like Paddy Donovan, Quigley is trained by Andy Lee who will be confident that he can steer Donegal’s former world-title challenger towards an upset victory that would dictate that there is a bit of life in the old era yet.
