Promoter Says Dana White Sees Conor McGregor In Callum Walsh
Tom Loeffler, the promoter of Callum Walsh says UFC CEO Dana White sees Conor McGregor in the Irishman.
Walsh is an undefeated boxer and is a close friend of White who also hypes up his boxing matches, despite not being his promoter. Walsh’s fights have been on UFC Fight Pass, to build their connection and in his last fight, the Irishman stopped Darren Yeleussinov in the ninth round.
“I really think that’s going to be an event for years to come, with Callum Walsh fighting at Madison Square Garden,” Loeffler told BoxingScene recently. “The show turned out great. It hit Top 20 all-time events at the Theater at Madison Square Garden for ticket sales, and it was the highest-rated boxing show ever on UFC Fight Pass. So, it really feels like that’s going to be an annual event for Callum Walsh. And we’re just going to plan the rest of his fights around that schedule.”
Currently, the plan is to try and get Walsh back ASAP and continue to build with the UFC as Tom Loeffler says they believe Walsh can be as big of a star as McGregor is.
“So we’re just trying to figure out the availability of the arenas over there,” Loeffler added. “When the UFC gets behind him – and the social media platforms that they have on a worldwide basis are tremendous, they have over 37 million followers on Instagram – so when they post about Callum I feel like it’s the first serious effort that a boxing promoter has made to capture the UFC fan base. We’re trying to merge the two and when we bring him to a UFC event, we see the fan reaction that he elicits.
“That’s why his nickname on one of his Instagram accounts is ‘That Boxing Fella.’ You hear it all the time at UFC shows – ‘There’s that boxing fella’ – because the UFC fans still wonder why is the UFC supporting a boxer as much as they do, or why is Dana getting behind a boxer, and he really has taken to Callum Walsh. He sees shades of Conor McGregor, of that hilarity and charisma, in Callum and we’re just taking advantage of that platform and of him being promoted on both sides,” Loeffler said.
