Callum Walsh, Dana White's first boxing experiment, has the rest of the combat world seeing green

NEW YORK — They don’t turn the rivers green in New York for St. Patrick’s Day, but the gutters are known to overflow with the afternoon’s intake of Guinness. And on the eve of that special day in the Big Apple, a good many were in their best and proudest greens as the Irishman himself, Callum Walsh, took center stage at the Theater at Madison Square Garden.

It was an old-school affair. The sun was still up when Sunday’s main card began, a little happy hour gathering of rowdies, and the fight types were stuffed into the lesser of the Gardens to get an eyeful of the 24-year-old phenom who has captured the attention of Dana White. The face of the UFC — and the new face in boxing — was ringside along with his right-hand man, Hunter Campbell, each of them in expensive sneakers. Though Feargal McCrory did the Irish proud by overcoming Keenan Carbajal with a steady and determined onslaught fighting in a phone booth in the co-main event, White never really got out of his seat.

That is, not until Walsh made the walk.

Back in September, when “King” Walsh fought for the first time on his native soil in Ireland in what was just his 12th professional boxing bout, Dublin ushered him in by singing “The Celtic Symphony” in unison. It was quite a scene for a 23-year-old boxer who hadn’t really fought anyone yet.

It was made all the more novel because it was airing on UFC Fight Pass, an MMA-centric service which might stream the odd jiu-jitsu event, but never boxing. Though the two sports had swerved into each other from time to time — most notably when another Irishman, Conor McGregor, dragged the interest of the MMA world over to the ring for his fight with Floyd Mayweather in 2017 — they’d had remained pretty much in their own lanes for years.

Perhaps Walsh with his good looks and undefeated record wasn’t merely a pet project of White's. Perhaps he was a harbinger of things to come. A couple of weeks ago, it was announced that White and Turki Alalshikh were partnering up under the TKO banner to kick up a boxing league, which made the ground quake a bit under the solid footing of promoters used to doing business a certain way.

But none of this mattered much to the faithful there to see Walsh do work Sunday against a Scottish fellow named Dean Sutherland. From what I was able to tell, Deano wasn’t an Uber driver or a Jersey Mike’s cashier, as he was accused of being by boxing’s most vocal cynics. Then again, as he stepped through the ropes in his sparkling blues, he wasn’t Vergil Ortiz Jr., either. He came out to one of the drowsiest entrance songs you’ll ever hear during a celebration, yet it might as well have been “Taps” given the grim task he was undertaking. Nobody was in the mood for a spoiler, and at +500 on BetMGM lines, Vegas saw Sutherland as little more than a showcase for Walsh to pick up lucky No. 13.

And he was.

As Walsh entered the ring in his high-beam Irish trunks, White was up with his phone, filming what he could of his prizefighter as he shook out his gloved hands. You don’t see White often showing that kind of enthusiasm for prospects in MMA. Sometimes a “holy s***!” and a raised eyebrow is all you get. Yet Walsh means more. He is the first boxing representative to get the Dana rub. The ring girl circled with UFC Fight Pass on her ring card, signaling Round 1 — and it turned out that was a lone trip she’d get to make.

Walsh went right after Sutherland, headhunting from the opening bell. He swiped him with his right hand as he kept the left coiled, ready to unleash like he did against Przemyslaw Runowski in Dublin a few months back. He was snapping off shots, and you could see it was a matter of time by the register on Sutherland’s features. At the 2:45 mark of the first round, it happened. The left hand, and down went Sutherland in a sudden collapse. The Irish sprang, and Manhattan sloshed into a raucous cheer. What a tradition. It was the third time that Walsh had made St. Patrick’s Day time memorable in his young career, each time with knockouts.

According to Tom Loeffler of 360 Promotions, he’ll do it again next year, too. St. Patrick’s for Callum Walsh is what Mexican Independence Day is to Canelo Alvarez.

Walsh’s famous cornerman, Freddie Roach, was among the first to congratulate him in the ring. Then came Dana White, who smiled ear-to-ear at his new Irishman, this one belonging to the sweet science. Ray Longo, the “Godfather” himself, gave an agreeable nod from his seat a few rows back. So did Big E, the pro wrestler who flew in from Oakland specifically for the fight. Was it a lion eating appetizers? Nobody knows yet. You ask the more hardened veterans of boxing, a few of which were ringside for the fight, and they motion for you to pump the brakes. One of them even gave me a side-eye look without comment. Cynicism for prospects is a language that MMA people are not fluent in, yet — as time goes on — we’ve become at least conversational.

Maybe a name like Xander Zayas awaits Walsh next. But it’s more than just where Walsh is headed. It’s where boxing is headed.

“You’ll never beat the Irish, and that’s a fact,” Walsh said in the ring afterward, which brought 4,000 people to their feet. “We’re here to stay, New York City!”

The celebration was on.

“I’m destined to be the best fighter in the world. And I’m looking forward to the future.”