When Callum Walsh first laced up the gloves and stepped between the ropes, there was no indication of what was to come.
“I actually lost my first amateur fight,” he told BoxingScene during a recent conversation at the Wild Card Boxing Club, where he is training for a matchup with Elias Espadas on June 21 at Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez, California. “Eleven years old, lost my first amateur fight.”
But, Walsh points out, he soon got into the swing of things. He thereafter won what he recalls as “a crazy amount in a row,” and at age 15 competed for, and won, his first of what would be six national titles.
Like his banner mate Cain Sandoval – who is also, like Walsh, trained by Freddie Roach and promoted by Tom Loeffler – Walsh first picked up the sport not because he was a miscreant who needed his aggression tamed and focused, but because his father was a former boxer who encouraged his son to follow in his footsteps.
Born in Cobh (pronounced “Cove”), on a small island in Cork Harbour best known as the final port of call for the Titanic, Walsh was, he says, “always around boxing.”
“I never grew up watching boxing,” he said. “That’s not how I got into it. It’s just what I knew. I was always around the boxing gyms. And once I got older, I would just go to the gym, Monday, Wednesday, Friday nights. Go to school and go to the gym. When you grow up doing something, it’s just what you know. I didn’t know any different.”
By the time he won a European gold medal at the age of 16 in 2017, he began to think “I can try and do something with this.”
He contemplated taking aim at the Olympics until the COVID pandemic pushed the Tokyo Games from 2020 to 2021. He decided to try his luck at becoming a disciple of Roach, but getting into the US from Ireland at the height of the pandemic was not an option. So he flew to Tijuana, Mexico, tried twice (and failed) to walk across the border and managed to gain entry on a third attempt when he said he was visiting his father, who by then lived in Long Beach, California.
Walsh made his way to Hollywood and knocked on the door of the Wild Card. Roach looked him up and down, and told him if he wanted to train there he’d have to spar first. So he did, putting in several rounds with Blair Cobbs. Roach told him to come back the next day, which he did. Ultimately, Roach took him on, and Walsh has trained there since, amassing a record of 13-0 (11 KOs).
Partly because of the restrictions imposed by COVID, Walsh trained and sparred at Wild Card every day for a year before making his pro debut, a grounding he thinks gave him a stable base that he might not otherwise have had.
“It’s something that will never get old,” he said of training in one of the sport’s great cathedrals. “You don’t get used to it, especially because you just don’t know who’s going to be here on any given day. It’s constantly changing. There’s constantly stuff going on. Every day is exciting.”
At first, Walsh chose to continue soaking up the excitement when he left the gym, as well, but after two years living in Hollywood, he has moved to the more tranquil surroundings of the Ventura farmlands.
“I had to move back to the quiet, the country,” he said with a smile.
Despite being taken the distance just twice in his young career, Walsh doesn’t feel the need to start banking more rounds in the ring for experience.
“I get enough rounds in the gym, to be honest,” he said. “I get the rounds in sparring. I don’t really need any unnecessary damage. I don’t need to fight 10 rounds; I spar 10 rounds comfortably. I know it’s different to a fight. But still, I know I can do it. I get paid the same whether I knock them out in the first round or it goes 10 rounds, and nobody wants to go in there and fight for 10 rounds and take damage. I’d rather go in there and get the fight done and move on to the next one and be healthy and happy.”
At the time we talk, Walsh hasn’t yet watched tape of Espadas, 23-6-1 (16 KOs), although he says he will do so closer to the fight. He prefers to focus on himself and, at least initially, leave the planning to Roach.
“Obviously, my team has a plan,” he said. “Freddie has a plan. Right now, I’m not too worried. I’m just getting in shape, getting ready, and to be honest, for me, you know, once I’m 100 percent ready, it doesn’t matter who I fight. Doesn’t matter what their style is. I’ll figure them out eventually.”
The fact is, Walsh continued, “I believe when I'm at my best, I can fight anybody and beat anybody on any given night. And I don't like to think too much about my opponents. I don't really like the whole face-off thing. I prefer to just train and be ready and just simply get in there and do my job. I think of this as a job. My job is to fight, and I'll fight anybody.”
Even if he hasn’t yet seen much of Espadas, he knows about him, knows that he is coming off an impressive April outing when he fought to a draw against unbeaten Sadriddin Akhmedov.
“So he’s coming at his best, coming off two full camps,” Walsh said. “So I think if I go in there and make a big statement, it is a good way to measure myself. But I think these are the fights that I need. I believe I’m one of the best fighters in the world, and I just need to prove it.”
Kieran Mulvaney has written, broadcast and podcast about boxing for HBO, Showtime, ESPN and Reuters, among other outlets. He presently co-hosts the “Fighter Health Podcast” with Dr. Margaret Goodman. He also writes regularly for National Geographic, has written several books on the Arctic and Antarctic, including most recently Arctic Passages: Ice, Exploration, and the Battle for Power at the Top of the World, and is at his happiest hanging out with wild polar bears. His website is www.kieranmulvaney.com.