Ryan Walsh has called for a shot at newly crowned British lightweight champion Sam Noakes.
Walsh (28-4-2, 12 KO’s) proudly reigned at the British featherweight champion for five years between 2015 and 2020. In March 2022 he leap frogged the super featherweight division and stepped straight up to 135lbs where he lost a decision to Maxi Hughes for the IBO title.
Walsh has appeared only once since – he notched up a routine four round victory in December – but he has never turned his back on the sport he loves.
Walsh and his brothers – Former British and Commonwealth super featherweight champion and world title challenger Liam and unbeaten Michael – remain obsessed with boxing and Sam Noakes’ British lightweight title victory over Lewis Sylvester last Saturday quickly became a topic of conversation. Walsh fancies a crack at the heavy handed Noakes.
“I was on the field planting trees and my brother and son were there. Liam will never be anything but honest. He said, ‘You’re 37, they aren’t really the fights you need.’ He doesn’t realise the fire that he ignited,” Walsh told Steve Lillis and John Evans on VIP’s Bell 2 Bell podcast. “I thought, ‘You f——ing what?’ He isn’t a bigger puncher than James Tennyson (who Walsh stopped back in 2015) and he isn’t a bigger puncher than my brother Michael.”
Noakes is one of the most exciting young talents in British boxing and bullied the previously unbeaten Sylvester to a fourth round defeat, racking up his thirteenth successive stoppage in the process. Walsh is a realist and knows that Noakes would present a formidable challenge but feels that the fight would provide him with the perfect finale to a successful career.
“If Noakes needs a defence then I’m your man for sure. I’ve never said no, I would never say no and I fancy I’d beat him,” he said.
“I love that style. I love it when they come to put it all over me. It wouldn’t even negotiate too much on the money. You give me the British title shot I deserve against that style and I feel like the boxing Gods are being fair to me.”