For years, that was the main objective for a teenager from Cork, Ireland, called Callum Walsh, whose Olympic dream ran alongside his fisherman’s reality.

“We would start at 4 a.m.,” Walsh tells The Ring. “Just me and one other fella on our boat. We would fish until about 11 in the morning, and then I’d sleep for the rest of the day and then go and train at the boxing club at night.

“We would fish for crab and lobster. We had a bunch of crab pots, you know like a load of strings in Cork Harbour. We would go out every morning and empty them. So we had a load of crabs and lobsters on our hands and would have to keep them alive all week, because every Saturday we would export them to Spain or France or whatever,

“Every week a truck would come over, we would sort through all our catches, throw away anything dead, then load the truck up, and off they went back to Spain.”

Such a lifestyle, in a small fishing town on the south coast of Ireland, could not feel further removed from Walsh’s current reality as a world level professional boxer who now lives and trains in Los Angeles. But there is something to be said for hard graft throughout each and every week in order to reap the rewards on a Saturday.

On August 8, Walsh will headline Zuffa Boxing’s first ever event on Irish soil when he faces former European middleweight champion Tyler Denny at Dublin’s 3Arena, a little over 150 miles northeast of the waters he used to scour as a teen. Victory would net him even bigger opportunities in a middleweight division currently lacking a central figure.

But never mind his days on the boats, it has been a hard journey ever since he first touched down on American soil just before the world went into lockdown in, 2020. He had only planned to visit his dad in Los Angeles for a few weeks to do a bit of training but Walsh ended up staying for the best part of two years.

And while opportunities for boxing were limited by lockdown, he found an oasis of opportunity at Wild Card Boxing Club after trying his luck at the gate one Wednesday. “Wild Card was still strict at the time because of Covid, and the gates were closed. I walked up, and Freddie Roach happened to be right there. I told him I had come over from Ireland and was looking for somewhere to train.

“He said, ‘Well, today is Wednesday, that’s sparring day, have you got your gear?’ Luckily I did so I just threw it on, jumped in and sparred. I must have done OK, because Freddie said, ‘Alright, come back tomorrow.’”

The man in the opposite corner that day was Blair Cobbs, a 13-0-1 professional at the time. It was sink or swim time for the fisherman.

“I must have done alright I guess,” he says. “Good job I didn’t get sparked out, really. My life would be quite different now.”

Instead, from his base on his dad’s sofa, Walsh would plot his route toward the Quiet Cannon Conference and Event Center in Montebello, California, which would play host to his first five fights as a professional. He ended four of them inside the distance.

“That was actually a good spot, you know,” he says. “It was a small hall, but they would fill it up. There would always be a good crowd in there, and that’s where I first got a feel of being a pro, selling tickets, all that kind of stuff.”

As it happened, getting bums on seats was never a problem for the youngster, despite being relatively new to the area. His decision to join a local Gaelic football club meant he could always shift his fair share of tickets.

“I think to be on the show you had to sell like 100, which I always managed,” he adds. “It was hard, but we always got it done. We were lucky enough to have a good Irish support, but I had to stop playing football in the end in case I got injured.”

From the off, Walsh was promoted by Tom Loeffler, which, in turn, opened the door to his long-time association with Dana White.

“Tom gave me the opportunity to make my pro debut, then signed me to a contract,” he says. “Him and Dana were already working on putting boxing on UFC Fight Pass, so that’s where that connection came from.

“He wanted me to meet Dana, so I went to Vegas for that on my 21st birthday. I went to his office and showed him some of my amateur fights, told him a bit about myself and then told him it was my birthday, so he sent me to the shooting range. It was mad enough.”

Walsh is 25 now, and Zuffa Boxing is now a full-fledged promotional outfit whose roster boasts stars like Conor Benn and Jai Opetaia. But, well before those two had even heard of the company, Walsh was already on board. He was rewarded for his loyalty with a main event slot on Zuffa Boxing 01, which he marked by beating Carlos Ocampo.

“People ask why I signed with Zuffa, but I feel like it’s only natural, and it’s only the beginning,” says Walsh (16-0, 11 KOs). “Why would I go anywhere else? That never even crossed my mind.

“It’s cool to see how it has all unfolded considering I have been there since the beginning. I was one of the first boxing guys Dana got involved with, if not first, so it’s cool to see how it’s growing.

“It’s an honor to be going back to Ireland with Zuffa. I’m actually going to head back there two weeks before and finish my camp in Cork. I try to get back as much as I can. It’s where I come from and always will be.”