CALLUM WALSH HAS been walking around Dublin since three o’clock this morning.
Fresh off a flight on Tuesday from his adopted home of Los Angeles, the Cork boxer couldn’t sleep with the time difference so he left his hotel, grabbed a breakfast roll and a Dairy Milk, and went for a wander around George’s Street.
It wasn’t long, anyway, until his first media obligation of the day: Ireland AM, on which Walsh would begin promoting his headline bout against Polish no.1 Przemyslaw Runowski (22-2-1, 6KOs) at the 3Arena on Friday, 20 September.
Light-middleweight Walsh, 11-0 (9KOs), one of world boxing’s highest-profile up-and-comers, is well accustomed to speaking in front of the camera; he lives and trains in Hollywood, after all.
But walking into Virgin Media’s studios in Ballymount as dawn broke this morning had a special significance for the Cobh native: his grandmother watches Ireland AM every day.
“So, she woke up this morning to watch me on the telly,” Walsh smiles. “That’s pretty cool.”
That was a rare opportunity: Walsh’s 11 professional bouts to date have taken place between Los Angeles, Boston and New York, all in the wee hours of the morning on this side of the Atlantic.
He travels home to Cork after each fight to see everyone, Gran included, but this 36-hour stop in Dublin is business-only.
Still, it’s starting to hit home, now, not only for family and friends but for Walsh himself, that when he returns next month, he will be the main event in Ireland’s capital, and on Irish time.
“Everyone was just talking about it normally to begin with,” Walsh says. “Then I just started sending them videos a while ago of the arena and stuff like that.
“And tickets are gone on sale today — so it’s happening, y’know? It’s ‘real’ now. Everyone’s starting to realise, ‘Fuckit, we have to buy tickets,’ and then, ‘Wow, we’re actually going, and it’s not even that far away.’”
KING CALLUM WALSH HAS DONE IT AGAIN!!!#HFNBoxing pic.twitter.com/CLdX0ZVSAW
— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) June 8, 2024
It’s put to Walsh that his phone must be hopping, what with ticket requests and messages from fellow Irish boxers about any remaining undercard slots.
“To be honest”, he replies, “the most requests I’m after getting is fellas trying to give me haircuts!
“I’ve had 12 different barbers onto me here in Dublin while I’ve been back asking me if I want a haircut — and I need one and all, I just don’t have the time. Sure I’m leaving again at five o’clock in the morning, like, to go back training.
“I could really do with a haircut because I’m going to Vegas on Friday, but I’ll have to figure something out.”
Walsh heads for Sin City this weekend for a UFC Fight Night bill on which his girlfriend, the Brazilian strawweight Tabatha Ricci, will face American Angela Hill in the chief support. The Cork man will also continue to promote his own upcoming boxing match which, like all of his bouts, will stream exclusively live on UFC Fight Pass.
It’s typically backstage at these events where Walsh is left flabbergasted by the extent to which his profile has grown in recent years. Back in April, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg stopped him for a chat as Walsh awaited his girlfriend outside a bathroom. Zuckerberg’s wife, Priscilla Chan, a doctor, even fulfilled her dream of applying Vaseline to a boxer’s brow during the chinwag.
Walsh puts it all down to Dana White. The UFC president is one of the most famous people on the planet and he took a liking to Walsh a couple of years ago. White ostensibly now co-promotes the Cork man alongside his old friend, Tom Loeffler, the boxing brain who brought the Klitschko brothers and Gennady Golovkin to the masses.
“Even in the airport, some of the airport staff and things like that… Obviously, with Dana White talking about a fight in Dublin, even if people didn’t know who I was, they’ll know Dana and they’ll start to take notice,” Walsh says.
People knowing who I am, it’s crazy. I don’t even know what to think. Like, Mark Zuckerberg knew who I was? Theo Von, I went to his show in Cork last time I was home and he knew who I was. It’s all Dana White.
“All of these people go to UFC events because of Dana and then he’s talking about me online and they all see me. It’s insane to even think that some of these people know about me. Crazy.
“Dana gives me so much promotion but I think I get a lot from it because it’s different, if you know what I mean.”
Walsh expands:
Everyone sees him promoting UFC fighters, obviously, but when they see him promoting some boxer, it gets more interest because people are wondering, ‘Why?’ They see me on the UFC social media pages and they’re wondering why, too.
White has answered those ‘whys’ plenty of times and Walsh reiterates, bashfully: “He likes me, obviously, enough, y’know what I mean?”
The boxer laughs. “We’ve a good relationship and it’s just something that’s fun for him.
“Like he’s said, he just enjoys it. He doesn’t get anything from me. Like, I cost him money if anything — I’m actually costing the fella a lot of money!”
Indeed, White will foot the bill for virtually the entire homecoming in four weeks’ time, assisting Loeffler whose 360 Promotions — like any boxing promotional company of a similar size — would simply not be able to afford to do business in Dublin.
“The fact that Dana’s doing that and he’s not making anything off it is crazy,” Walsh says. “It’s after helping my career massively and it’s something that I’ll always remember. If Dana ever needs me to do anything for him, I’ll do it, no questions asked.”
There are critics of White’s passion project within MMA, some of whose community believe for the UFC president to afford such a platform to a complete outsider is to spit in the face of his own contracted up-and-comers. Many of White’s fighters doubtless feel the same. Combine that with the fact that Walsh is now in a relationship with the UFC’s femme fatale, Tabatha Ricci, and the Cobh man leaves more noses out of joint outside of the boxing ring than within it.
Equal parts confident and self-deprecating, Walsh takes the piss out of this external perception on Instagram — where he now has 205,000 followers — and describes himself in his bio as ‘The boxer fella with the UFC’.
But he still finds the MMA world to be broadly supportive of his efforts in the boxing ring, particularly when they cross paths with him in the corridors of UFC fight venues.
“When I meet people, it’s a lot different,” Walsh says. “Y’know, some people just see you on a screen and they don’t really know who you are or what you’re like, but then you meet them in person and you’re taking pictures and they see that you’re just normal.
“I don’t think I’m better than anybody else. I think that’s the big thing in getting MMA fans on your side, is actually meeting them and talking to them and taking the bit of time so that they get a sense of you as a person.
It’s easy to judge someone when you just see them on your phone, online, but when you meet them in person and they’re actually fine, they’re normal, it’s harder then to throw a shitty comment their way on social media.
Big praise for @KingCallumWalsh ahead of his Irish homecoming! 🇮🇪 🥊
— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) August 21, 2024
🎟️ https://t.co/1QbT5VImvi#WalshRunowski | @UFCFightPass pic.twitter.com/QXmZ0GKcUg
He might be a normal-enough 23-year-old fella from Cobh behind it all but there is nothing ordinary about what Walsh has pulled off in the sport of boxing so far.
He parked his job hauling lobster pots in Cork Harbour at the height of 2020 Covid restrictions and relocated to Los Angeles — after two rebuffed attempts to walk across the border from Mexico — just to get to competitive jump on his fellow amateurs who were locked out of gyms back in Ireland.
He knocked on the door of Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Boxing Club, which was closed except to professional boxers, and convinced the Hall of Fame trainer to let him in. He has since become Roach’s protegé, the star of a gym which has churned out all-time talents such as Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto, and Lucia Rijker.
He is promoted by a future Hall-of-Famer in Tom Loeffler and championed at every turn by the kingpin of a sport that directly competes with boxing for eyeballs. He is the second most-followed Irish boxer on social media after Katie Taylor — and yes, that matters.
Even Walsh’s homecoming bill makes him something of an outlier in his sport in this country. Only three Irish boxers in the last 15 years have headlined shows at the 3Arena: WBA beltholder Bernard Dunne (27-1, 15KOs) in 2009, world-title-chasing Matthew Macklin (31-5, 20KOs) in 2014, and undisputed title challenger Katie Taylor (22-0/22-1, 6KOs) twice last year.
Walsh, a 23-year-old prospect with a record of 11-0 (9KOs), will be the fourth.
“That’s the first time I’ve even heard it put like that, now. Yeah, when you say it like that…” Walsh pauses. “Wow… It makes it sound like a lot more of a big deal than I was thinking it was — and obviously I was thinking it was a big deal already…
“…Call it off, I’d say?” Walsh laughs. “I’ll have to leave it off, now, I think, yeah.
“But no, that’s a cool fact to know. I’m very grateful to be able to do that.
Wow. This will be my 12th fight and I’m headlining the 3Arena at 23 years old. It’s crazy to think that’s something I’m even able to do.
A month out, now. He’s almost set — but there are still a couple of boxes to be ticked both in the Wild Card gym and on this side of the pond.
A special occasion in front of however-many-thousand fans in Dublin will require an element of pageantry. Should he don Rebel-red trunks in a Dublin ring or opt for a more neutral Irish colour scheme? He hasn’t yet decided. Who’ll cut his hair before the big occasion? Ping him on Instagram and he may well be in touch.
But Walsh does have a particular ring-walk in mind which would lift the lid off the 3Arena if the scenes at Electric Picnic last weekend were any indication.
“In New York back in March (following victory over Dauren Yeleussinov),” he says, “I was drinking with The Wolfe Tones. We talked about it a small bit.
“Now, I haven’t talked to them since, but that would be ideal — even if I could just get them to come to the show! I dunno if I could get them to perform. I must talk to them again, now, during the week and see if we can organise something.”
The bossman Dana White is all-in on Ireland's own @KingCallumWalsh 🇮🇪 🌟
— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) August 21, 2024
🎟️ https://t.co/1QbT5VIUkQ
#WalshRunowski | @UFCFightPass pic.twitter.com/a9nKGBlU4q
As Walsh prepares to head back to the States to finish out his training camp with Freddie Roach, he looks wistfully towards his return to the Irish capital in a few weeks for the biggest night of his young life.
“I’m looking forward to getting the win and getting back down to Cork!” he says.
“Nah, I’m looking forward to getting back here and putting on a show for the Irish people, y’know? All my fights have been in America and people can’t afford to get there or people just don’t have time; people are working jobs, or they could be too young to travel as well.
“I’m looking forward to being in a fight that all of my Irish supporters can get to, no matter where they are or what age they are. Hopefully they can all make it to Dublin on a Friday night and I’ll put on a show for them.”
Callum Walsh makes his highly anticipated homecoming to Ireland on Friday, 20 September at Dublin’s 3Arena. Tickets are on sale now via Ticketmaster. The ten-round main event will be broadcast globally on UFC FIGHT PASS.
