Callum Walsh called it. He predicted that it was going to be “a bad night to be a beer” when he faced Przemyslaw Runowski in Dublin on September 20, and, lo and behold, after Walsh stopped his foe in two rounds at 3Arena, it was.
“Yeah, definitely,” laughs the unbeaten junior middleweight prospect. “They were being thrown around the whole arena. That’s when it was bad to be a beer. I’d say bad to be ringside even. When I was in the ring, I was trying to catch one and it just bounced off my glove.”
That was the only “L” the 23-year-old took that night, as he impressively knocked Runowski out and let the local crowd know that their boy had done good. They responded with beer in celebration, and he couldn’t have been happier.
“It was a crazy night, and it went exactly how I imagined it,” Walsh said. “It couldn’t have gone any better. It was definitely good to go back and show people the level that I’m at. I think it’s hard for a lot of people to watch it on their phone or on the TV and really understand how big of a deal it actually is. So going back and filling the arena, the atmosphere, and [UFC CEO] Dana [White] being there and everything, I think it really was an eye-opener for people to see that this is actually the real thing and a big show. It’s not something I’m just watching through my phone, and it gives people more of a chance to really get behind me, and when you see it in person, it’s easier for you to understand. So that was the main thing for me for going back.”
Walsh, now 12-0 (10 KOs), is back in his adopted home of California, preparing in Big Bear for his March 16 bout with Dean Sutherland. It’s the continuation of his now-annual trek to New York City, where he’ll headline a card the day before St. Patrick’s Day in The Theater at Madison Square Garden.
That’s a big deal for someone with 12 pro fights who hasn’t reached his 25th birthday, but Walsh is handling it all like a pro, as he has since he arrived in Hollywood during the COVID-19 pandemic. And while it’s assumed that the road was paved with gold for the native of Cork, Ireland, it wasn’t always like that, with his first year as a pro being particularly difficult to navigate.
“Yeah, there were times where I was like, ‘I’m just going to go home. I’m going to go back home and go back working,’ because for the first year I was here, I didn’t even make a dollar,” Walsh said. “I didn’t make a single dollar for the first year I was here. I was just sleeping on a couch for six months, and then I only started to make a little bit of money. Then once I made my pro debut, it wasn’t even a lot, but I got lucky enough that I was able to stay with family out here at the start until I was able to get my own place and all that. But it was hard. It was very hard. Even my first couple of pro fights, people think that you’re a millionaire when people see that you’re a pro. I was literally fighting just to pay my rent. For my first few fights, I would fight, pay all my rent, and then I’d be like, ‘When’s the next fight?’”
Walsh laughs, because now he can afford to – literally and figuratively. He’s not a millionaire yet, but he’s on the way there, and as he enters 2025, he’s ranked sixth in the world by the IBF and seventh by the WBC.
That doesn’t mean that he’s ready for a title shot, but it does mean that every fight this year will be a big one in terms of his career progression. Walsh knows it, too, but he isn’t overanalyzing things. Just tell him when and where to show up, and he’ll bring his mouthpiece and a cup.
“I’ll just fight the man they put in front of me and wherever I end up, that’s where I end up,” he said. “And I think that’s the best way to approach it. You just fight anyone they put in front of you, and they can’t deny you of anything. They have to move you up in the rankings. So I’ll just fight whoever they put in front of me, and when I get to the top, I’ll know for myself that I fought everyone they put in front of me and that I deserve the belt that I have.”
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