Callum Walsh wins ugly against Tyler Denny to maintain his unbeaten professional record

Cork professional boxing superstar Callum ‘King’ Walsh made a winning return to the 3Arena on Saturday night when he beat English fighter Tyler Denny by unanimous decision in a Middleweight contest in a ZUFFA boing promotion event.

Walsh now goes to 17 and 0 and remains unbeaten as a professional.

However, he didn’t have it all his own way, with Denny making things difficult for him throughout the fight. 

There was early drama with both fighters down in the opening two rounds, and then they had a point deduction taken from both of them in the eight round.

However, Walsh done enough to sway the judges with the cleaner work throughout for the judges to score the fight 98-91, 98-91 and a 96-91 victory that certainly benefited the Cork fighter going forward in his career.

Walsh looked so composed when he entered the ring to the sound of the Wolfe Tones tune the Celtic Symphony, that had all the crowd on their feet, however, the atmosphere certainly didn’t faze the 35 year old from England.

The Cork man, started the fight by working behind his right jab and looked very comfortable in the opening exchanges. 

He attacked Denny’s body with some excellent combinations, however, everything changed in the final minute of the round when he got caught with a left hook to the back of the head and and a result he touched down and was given a count.

That was really wake-up call for Walsh and he started the second round on the front foot. 

Then when he unleashed a superb combination of a right hook to body and followed up with a chopping left he sent Denny to the canvas. 

Walsh remained calm and never got over excited to win the round comfortably.

Walsh continued to dictate the third round by working behind his right jab, however, the English fighter changed his tactics and tried to slow Walsh down. This certainly took Walsh out of his stride but he done enough to win the round.

The fourth and fifth rounds were pretty scrappy with both fighters doing a lot of holding, but Denny got more success by working on the inside.

Walsh began the sixth round by getting back to what he is good at, working behind his jab and he caught Denny on the way in with some crisp uppercuts to finish the round on top.

Both fighters had success at the start of the seventh round, however, Walsh caught his opponent with two consecutive left hooks to the body. Denny was hurt again when he walked onto a powerful left overhand left to the head that saw the King take the round.

Walsh was now more composed in the eighth round, but Denny was trying to make things difficult by steaming in with his head low. 

However, it was Walsh who was punished with a point deduction for holding and in fairness he couldn’t do much about it with the style of Denny. 

A few seconds later Denny was deducted a point for a blow to the back of Walsh’s head to even up the round.

Walsh got a scare when he received a very nasty cut above his left eye from a clash of heads and it was very noticeable that Denny was rushing in low and lifting his head into Walsh, but he reminded composed and boxed beautifully behind his right jab to win the ninth round.

The final round Walsh trying to stay focused, but Denny to his credit landed some clean shots that certainly tested the chin of the Cork man.

The King was favourite coming into this fight and although he didn’t get the knockout he was craving, however, he would have learned more from this fight against a very experienced and awkward fighter to take his career to the next level. 

However, he will certainly need to improve on this performance if he wants to challenge the new IBF Middleweight champion Aaron McKenna.