The pair met in the chief support of Zuffa Boxing’s event at 3Arena in Dublin, headlined by the IBF middleweight title fight between Aaron McKenna and Etinosa Oliha. Walsh (17-0, 11 KOs), ranked No. 8 by the IBF, took another step toward world level with this win, but it wasn’t pretty.

Judges Colin Byrne and Paul McCullagh had it 98-91, while David John Irving scored it 96-90, ensuring Walsh’s first fight back in his homeland after four straight wins in America ended in victory.

The former fisherman from down the road in Cork was officially knocked down with 20 seconds left of the first when he ducked down too low to evade a flurry of hooks from Denny and used his fist to keep himself up. After dominating for most of the opener, it was a frustrating end to the round for the home favorite.

But after a minute of the second, Walsh replied by dropping Denny (21-5-3, 1 KO) with a perfectly timed counter left hand. Denny beat the count, but he did so on unsteady legs and, for a moment, it looked as though Walsh might be on the verge of an early stoppage.

Denny, however, held firm and made it through the round, which was otherwise punctuated by a number of accidental head clashes between the southpaw pair. Both had their moments through three and four as the ever-awkward Denny dug in to ensure this would be no homecoming walkover for Walsh, the house fighter.

As is often the case in all-southpaw affairs, this fight was untidy and hard to score with neither man able to find any real rhythm. Even referee Emile Tiedt gave them both a pep talk before the start of the seventh.

Walsh responded by boxing well throughout the round, hands down and landing with flashy combinations as Denny struggled to get anything off in response. Even so, Tiedt decided to act in the eighth, deducting a point from Walsh for holding and from Denny for punching on the back of the head when he did so.

It was not a pretty fight for the Sky Sports cameras, and it got even uglier as blood poured from a cut over Walsh’s left eye after another clash of heads.

It was more of the same in the ninth, though Walsh produced more good work in the 10th to seal an attritional victory.

Irish light heavyweight Joe Ward (13-1, 8 KOs) had to dig deep in order to secure a hard-fought points win over previously undefeated Artjom Kasparian (14-1, 12 KOs).

After 10 competitive rounds, scores of 97-93 twice and 96-94 ensured Ward’s first fight in 22 months ended in victory.

The fight was even through three, but it was not long before Ward started to look tired while Kasparian upped his work rate. Ward, an Olympian in 2016, did not seem to have any answers for the buzzsaw-like Dutchman, who was closing the distance and peppering his southpaw opponent.

But Ward clung on and provided a reminder of his quality late in the fifth, when he landed a pinpoint left uppercut as Kasparian stomped forward. Another two would follow in the sixth as Ward dug deep in the face of Kasparian’s relentless pressure.

By the seventh, it was Ward who gained the upper hand as Kasparian seemed to fade. The southpaw landed with a right hook and a long, arcing left hand which seemed to hurt his opponent. Kasparian had never gone more than seven rounds and he recovered well after what was Ward’s best period of the fight.

Even so, Kasparian was having nothing like the success he enjoyed in the first half of the fight and Ward did enough to close out the unanimous-decision victory.

Before Ward’s win, there was an explosive seventh-round victory for undefeated Scot “Tricky” Sam Hickey (6-0, 3 KOs) over Royal Air Force firefighter Brad Axe (5-2).

Hickey, 26, boxed well throughout and found a chilling right-hand finish after 27 seconds of the penultimate round of their eight-round contest.

In the first fight of the Sky Sports broadcast, Louis Greene (19-4, 12 KOs) had to settle for a points win after six rounds, despite landing heavy shots throughout to the head and body of Romanian visitor Daniel Buciuc (16-3, 6 KOs).

Tiedt scored it 59-55 in Greene’s favor.

Patrick O’Connor (4-0, 4 KOs) def. Juan Manuel Moriel (6-2, 5 KOs) RTD 1 (3:00) – cruiserweight

Connor Coyle (23-0, 10 KOs) def. Mark Bueke (13-4, 7 KOs) UD 10 – middleweight

Stephen McKenna (17-1, 16 KOs) def. Owen O’Neil (14-3, 1 KO) TKO 1 – middleweight