Cobh to New York: No nonsense Callum Walsh getting busy for the Garden
Callum Walsh warms up in the dressing-room ahead of his super welterweight title fight against Ismael Villarreal at the Madison Square Garden in New York. Pic: Sarah Stier, Getty Images
Is this real life? 22-year-old Callum Walsh walks into a south Dublin café accompanied by his girlfriend, MMA fighter Tabatha ‘Baby Shark’ Ricci and a UFC communications manager for his eighth interview of the day.
After an hour he has to depart with two more media obligations to come. Being a pro boxer has its payoff and it has a price.
Walsh’s record now reads 9-0 (7K0s). He ended 2023 as Fight Pass Male Fighter of the Year. In March he will headline Madison Square Garden for the second time in four months.
The light middleweight rise since leaving Cork during Covid and arriving unannounced at the door of Hall of Famer Freddie Roach and his Wild Card Boxing Gym has been well publicised. It is still staggering. Look at where it started, progressing diligently through the amateur ranks while working away on a fishing boat. Look at where he is now.
‘Some young fella from Cobh plastered all over billboards,’ as he occasionally reminds his social media followers. That reality is why hours of repetitive questions don’t faze him.
“It is better than doing 14 hours on a boat,” he says with a smile. “This is a day’s work. Doing a few interviews. Other than this I’ve to keep winning each fight and see what happens.”
The requirement is simple. Turn up. Deliver. Walsh sits and assesses each question like an opponent’s jab, engaging when the time is right and sidestepping where required. His left arm is wrapped with a series of tattoos, none of which have any deeper meaning: “There is no story behind any of them. Just liked them.”
A partnership with the UFC stemmed from promoter Tom Loeffler. His close relationship with Dana White led to Walsh fighting on Fight Pass broadcasts. That means backing. It means a significant endorsement. When it comes to press dealings, they make the arrangements and he does the rest. No media training necessary.
“Some people might need it, but I don’t think I do. I’ll talk away. No one told me what to say, I’ve always done the same thing,” Walsh says matter-of-factly.
“I know I have to do it obviously; I have to build a profile because people need to know who you are. But I’m not too worried. I know if I keep winning fights and doing what I do, it’ll build itself. I’m not trying to force anything. Do what I do and hope for the best.
"Even with social media, you do need it but it doesn’t have to be fake. Don’t pretend you are someone you are not. You see my stuff, it’s random. I don’t really care. I’m being myself. People will like it or they won’t.”
Walsh started boxing as a six-year-old in the Riverstown club. His mother was from Cobh and sent him out hurling. They lived two minutes from St Colman’s Park so Cobh Ramblers was a childhood haunt as well. Boxing came from his Mayfield father. That sport quickly became a priority. At 15, he packed in hurling and threw himself after an Olympic dream.
“I’d my first fight when I was 11 and I lost. That was in Cork. I can’t remember his name; I’ll have to check my book. I still have it. I’d ten losses in total as an amateur. Aidan Walsh was the last one. Some of my losses were international though, I lost to a Ukrainian and a Russian in the Europeans.
“I wanted to go to the Olympics, but it was always one or the other. Once I turned pro that was it. I knew I wasn’t going back.”
There were 120 amateur bouts before his final one, the 2019 Irish Elite final against eventual Tokyo Olympic medallist Aidan Walsh.
“He is long and awkward. I think if it was now, he wouldn’t beat me. No way. I was 18 and he’d a lot of experience,” he says. Did he learn more from that loss than any win? Not quite. The cliché doesn’t quite fit for the Cork puncher. He calls it in his own way.
“I knew why I lost it, but it was a bad fight, simple. You don’t really learn from that. He moves, he’s awkward and he is long. Not much to take away only that the pro fight experience I have now, I could put on more pressure.
“Back then, I didn’t know what I was getting into, I was rushing. But I’m a better fighter and much stronger now. I can put the pressure on now. I’m used to sparring 10, 11 rounds or more so I could go all out handy for three 3-minute rounds. That is the difference. Getting so many rounds builds that. It’d be no problem now.”
Walsh returns to the ring on Friday March 15 for a second consecutive New York main event on St Patrick’s weekend. Then a homecoming. Not as part of an undercard or any other promoter’s bout. This is his time.
“Dana wants the homecoming this year. We’ve talked about it already; he thinks it is time.
“I want my own thing. I’ve been doing my own thing. We don’t need anyone else. Not in a disrespectful way, but I’ve Dana White. Why would we need anyone else?”
He sounds singularly focused and self-driven because he is. Walsh is at his most expressive when discussing the causes closest to his heart. His career, his sport, his people. How did he spend the two-week break in Ireland before he returns to camp under trainer Roach? Doing what he always does.
“Go to the gym. Lift some weights. Go in and spar all the young fellas. I like going into Riverstown. See, we’d no one really when I was growing up training. No one to say, ‘keep boxing, stay with it.’ Man, everyone I boxed with doesn’t box anymore. They don’t train anymore.
“We’ve a fella who just came back from World Championships recently. He is only 16. He is fighting in the U18s this week. His name is Alex Noonan. We did a bit of sparring.
“Lads basically get to 17, 18 and go to pub instead of training. They box, maybe they lose, but they stop and get away from it. I said all of that to him. If I can do it anyone can. He has won Irish titles already; he is a good young fella.”
In November Walsh bested Bronx native Ismael Villarreal to secure a unanimous-decision verdict. A large Irish community was in attendance, including a Riverstown contingent and members of the Kerry football team on their team holiday. His star is rising but Walsh knows he can’t talk his way to the top. All the time, he is about business.
“I’m just taking it one fight at a time. I know you could let it get to you. You could think about it too much and feel under pressure, but you have to go in there and win. That’s it. Do you know what I mean? It’s on you. Go in and do my job and I can enjoy it after.”
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