{"id":86835,"date":"2025-08-23T06:39:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T06:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/86835\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T06:39:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T06:39:12","slug":"promoter-calls-callum-walsh-vs-fernando-vargas-jr-exactly-what-boxing-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/86835\/","title":{"rendered":"Promoter Calls Callum Walsh vs. Fernando Vargas Jr. ‘Exactly What Boxing Needs’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Loeffler feels like Callum Walsh-Fernando Vargas Jr.<\/a> is just the type of fight Turki Alalshikh wanted when he publicly discussed his hopes for the Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford<\/a> undercard.<\/p>\n

Their 10-round junior middleweight match represents a chance for Walsh and Vargas to prove themselves on the grandest stage imaginable. Both boxers will be exposed to a gargantuan audience, which will include millions of new viewers of the sport, in the co-feature Netflix will stream September 13 to more than 300 million subscribers globally.<\/p>\n

The winner will produce the most noteworthy win of his career and ascend in the 154-pound division. The loser will at least have demonstrated a willingness to take a difficult fight, rather than padding his record against lesser opponents.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s Walsh (14-0, 11 KOs), who is represented by Loeffler\u2019s 360 Promotions, is listed by most sportsbooks as a 4-1 favorite over Las Vegas\u2019 Vargas (17-0, 15 KOs), a son of the famous former junior middleweight champion who trains him. Walsh is trained by International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee Freddie Roach and has been hyped by UFC president and CEO Dana White in UFC Fight Pass main events.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t get any bigger than being the co-feature to Canelo-Crawford,\u201d Loeffler told The Ring.<\/a> \u201cYou have two young, undefeated, hungry, exciting boxers fighting each other. That\u2019s what boxing needs. Boxing needs these types of fights for the fans. This is what the fans wanna see. <\/p>\n

“They\u2019re both risking their undefeated records. They could easily continue to fight and continue to be undefeated for years to come, but this is a very dangerous fight for both of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The same principles apply to another Alvarez-Crawford undercard fight that\u2019ll take place prior to Walsh versus Vargas.<\/p>\n

Alalshikh targeted dangerous super middleweight Christian Mbilli <\/a>as one of the unbeaten boxers he most wanted to showcase at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Cameroon\u2019s Mbilli (29-0, 24 KOs), who resides and trains in Montreal, Canada, has long wanted to challenge Alvarez for the Mexican superstar\u2019s Ring, IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO 168-pound championships. Mbilli still happily accepted this high-risk, high-reward bout with hard-hitting Guatemalan contender Lester Martinez (19-0, 16 KOs).<\/p>\n

Martinez embraced the toughest test of his career as well. Mbilli, who owns the WBC interim belt, is The Ring\u2019s No. 1-ranked <\/a>super middleweight contender, whereas Martinez is no longer rated in the top 10 at 168.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a great fight between Mbilli and Lester Martinez,\u201d Loeffler said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be very fan friendly. They\u2019re two big punchers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another unbeaten prospect, 6-foot-9 heavyweight Ivan Dychko, will also try to legitimize himself on the YouTube portion of the Canelo-Crawford card against American veteran Jermaine Franklin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Only two-time heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua and two-time title challenger Dillian Whyte have defeated Franklin (23-2, 15 KOs), both on points. Kazakhstan\u2019s Dychko (15-0, 14 KOs) is a two-time Olympic bronze medalist, but he has been matched carefully in nearly eight years as a pro.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to seeing Ivan Dychko in the ring,\u201d Loeffler said before he referred to promoting Gennadiy Golovkin. \u201cHe\u2019s a huge heavyweight from Kazakhstan, and I know a few things about Kazakh boxers. Everything I\u2019ve heard about Dychko is he\u2019s very exciting and a top talent, so it\u2019ll be exciting to see him in the ring against a proven veteran like Jermaine Franklin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loeffler is most looking forward to seeing how Walsh, 24, handles Vargas, 28.<\/p>\n

\u201cCallum\u2019s a very fast starter,\u201d Loeffler said. \u201cCallum starts out from the very first round with all guns blazing. And Vargas Jr. has a lotta knockouts on his record as well, so he\u2019s not gonna be running. I think you\u2019ll see a lot of big punches thrown very early in this fight. You\u2019ve also got very passionate fan bases, with the Mexican-American fans supporting Vargas and Irish fans supporting Callum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Loeffler feels like Callum Walsh-Fernando Vargas Jr. is just the type of fight Turki Alalshikh wanted when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6842,6836,6841,6840,6834,6102,6837,6838,6839,6835,6588,6847,6846,6830,6828,6829,6844,6831,6827,6848,6843,101,6845,6826,6833,56,54,55,6832],"class_list":["post-86835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-community","tag-boxing-fights","tag-boxing-history","tag-boxing-interviews","tag-boxing-magazine","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxing-photos","tag-boxing-rankings","tag-boxing-schedule","tag-boxing-videos","tag-boxing-results","tag-disqualification","tag-draw","tag-fight","tag-fighter","tag-fighter-news","tag-knockout","tag-latest-boxing-matches","tag-ring","tag-ring-magazine","tag-split-decision","tag-sports","tag-technical-knockout","tag-the-ring","tag-top-fighters","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}