Callum Walsh (10-0, 8 KOs) stopped Dauren Yeleussinov (11-4-1, 10 KOs) in the ninth round to win the WBC Continental Americas super welterweight title in Friday’s headline fight at Madison Square Garden Theater in New York City.
After the bout, Walsh, 23, was told he is now ranked 14th in the 154-pound division and was asked how it would feel to enter the top 10. Walsh’s answer perfectly reflected his growing appeal:
“I don’t give a f**k,” he said. “Just give me more fights. Give me fights, give me opponents. I’ll get in here, and I’ll put on a show for the Irish people like I always do. Now who’s next?”
Walsh, born in Cork, Ireland, and now training in Hollywood, is on track to become a bona fide star. Trained by Freddie Roach and promoted by Tom Loeffler, Walsh is a nimble combination puncher who has yet to reach – and perhaps even glimpse – his ceiling.
Dana White, CEO of the UFC, has also shown interest in Walsh – to the point that the UFC Fight Pass platform has become the exclusive home of Walsh fights.
Walsh took control of Friday’s bout from the opening bell, throwing quick combinations in the early rounds, including one in the second round that sent Yeleussinov stumbling backwards into the ropes. Yeleussinov, 37, a Kazakh living in Brooklyn, New York, moved forward in the first act of the fight, but he rarely got off more than one punch at a time and looked stiff and slow in comparison to Walsh, nearly 15 years his junior.
Walsh uncorked a powerful left hook seconds from the end of the fourth round that wobbled Yeleussinov, the bell granting him a break in the action.
During the broadcast, Ring magazine editor-in-chief Doug Fischer relayed that Yeleussinov said he had cut 20 pounds since Tuesday in order to make weight.
In the middle rounds, Walsh threw heavy single shots, at times at the expense of his combinations – shades of his recent fight against Ismael Villarreal (13-2, 9 KOs), in which Walsh spent several rounds on the back foot even as he boxed effectively on his way to a unanimous decision win. But unlike Villarreal, Yeleussinov proved incapable of mustering enough pressure or output to keep Walsh moving backwards.
Even during that period, Walsh stung Yeleussinov with hard hooks. By the seventh, the punishment Yeleussinov had taken was alarmingly evident. His face was marked up, but so too were his neck, back and shoulders.
Walsh began throwing combinations again in the eighth, his fast hands flashing to his opponent’s face. The ringside doctor took a look after the round, but Yeleussinov was allowed to continue. Referee Eric Dali was clearly eager to stop the fight to halt the one-sided beating, warning Yeleussinov multiple times – including after he had taken yet another series of clean punches midway through the ninth.
This was just the second time Walsh had been in a fight of more than eight rounds, the first being the Villarreal fight. In that bout, Walsh’s combination punching faded more significantly after the first couple rounds. Although the official knockdown he took in the 10th was really a push, Walsh also ate a tremendous overhand right in that round that staggered him momentarily.
On Friday, Walsh showed a better motor and a more consistently threatening offense, though it was likely against an inferior opponent. With powerful figures in his corner, an exciting style and a fresh stoppage win on his record, Walsh’s audience and fan base are growing.