Callum Walsh: From working on fishing boats to ferocious sparring at the Wild Card gym – the making of a fighter | Boxing News

Callum Walsh doesn’t shy away from danger. The unbeaten contender from Ireland is looking to break through into the highest echelons of the middleweight division.

On Saturday, live on Sky Sports, he fights former European champion Tyler Denny at the 3Arena in Dublin.

It will be a test for Walsh against a dangerous opponent, one that he welcomes.

“I’m ready for anybody. I love to challenge myself. I love to fight,” Walsh told Sky Sports.

“Just tell me when. That’s it.”

The Irishman is returning to the 3Arena for his first fight in Dublin since knocking out Przemyslaw Runowski in two rounds in 2024.

“It was one of the best nights of my life. Walking out in front of that crowd was insane,” the 25-year-old said. “It looks like there was 20,000 people there and it felt like there was 20,000 people there.

“It was crazy. I can’t even describe it.”

He’s come a long way from working on fishing boats as a teenager in Cork. That was a demanding profession with its own kind of dangers.

“I got this fishing job just randomly, I didn’t want to work anywhere inside,” Walsh remembered.

“It was seven days a week, it was hard work, it wasn’t easy but the best job ever in the summer, when it’s sunny and you can jump off the boat and swim. You start at four o’clock in the morning. It was very hard [work].

“The worst thing [was] the storms.”

He’d haul crab and lobster pots on deck, rebait them and send them back to pulled down by their anchor.

“If you stack them in the wrong order, you’re [in trouble]. The whole boat is going to go. Crazy. It’s dangerous work,” Walsh explained.

“If they’re in the wrong order you’re going to have rope all over the place, there’s going to be stuff flying. You’re going to get tangled up, you’re going to get dragged overboard, dragged down with them. Even if it’s four or five o’clock in the morning you have to be switched on.

“[One time] I put them back in the wrong order, my leg got trapped on the side of the boat between the rope and the boat, but we were able to get the boat in reverse quick and I was able to get my leg out. Stuff like that is very dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

All the while he was pursuing a highly decorated amateur career which saw him winning medals domestically and on the international scene.

But he chose to pursue professional boxing and found his way to Freddie Roach’s famous Wild Card gym in LA. He had to prove himself straightaway. Roach threw the youngster into sparring on his first day.

“If you want to train here, you have to spar.’ He [Roach] wanted to see if I was even worth being there. I sparred the first day and he told me to come back again tomorrow,” Walsh said.

“I was in there sparring everybody and anyone for a year and then I made my pro debut.

“Someone will come in [to the Wild Card] for sparring, you know that they’re not really supposed to be there,” Walsh continued.

“Freddie would tell you: ‘Show this guy he’s not supposed to be here.’ I’ve knocked so many people out in that gym, I’ve seen so many people not come back. That’s how it is. Freddie Roach’s gym is known for being one of the best gyms in the world, known for tough sparring and Freddie he takes pride in that.”

His experiences in California helped forge the fighter Walsh is today. “Coming from a massive amateur background, to learning the pro style and how aggressive his pro style is. I think it’s the perfect combination,” Walsh said.

“Being able to go over to Freddie and learn that aggressive pro style from someone who’s had so much experience, I think it’s the perfect mixture”

He is determined to show what he can do against Denny on Saturday. “I just believe in my own ability. I just believe if I’ve trained and prepared to my best I can beat anybody.”

Watch Zuffa Boxing 10, headlined by Aaron McKenna vs Etinosa Oliha live on Sky Sports this Saturday.