AIR DATE:
EPISODE: Episode 19
Mike and Cedric discuss Kurt Anthony James Walker, an Irish amateur boxer. He won gold medals at the 2018 EU Championships and 2019 European Games, silver at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and bronze at the 2017 European Championships.
Watch Knuckle Up’s Mike Orr, who always discusses up-and-coming young, hungry, and (usually) undefeated boxers during his live daily show at 4pm EST (9pm UK) on TalkinFight.com or YouTube.com/c/TalkinFight
#TalkinFight #KnuckleUp #KurtWalker
Transcribed:
[, Music ]: what up talking fight fans thanks for tuning in to today’s episode of knuckle up featuring myself, mike orr and my man, cedric ben – do what we do best prospects around the world you’re here it’s four o’clock: we got a good one for you today.
Man previously one of the winners of our knockout of the week awards uh we’ve waited a little while to profile him, but we are doing it today here on the show, and it is kurt walker – yes guys, kurt walker, this, this wonderful irishman, who is a super Feather 27 years old, orthodox five, six and a half small guy is 2-0 right.
Now, with one knockout he’s rated four and four in ireland, 529 out of 1607 in the world and guys he just came off of a vote – point win uh against stefan nicoley uh, and that was back on april.
The 23rd guys uh this kid like to see him back in action.
To be honest, i wish i wish we had a moment uh to to upload that knockout that uh, that one man that vicious body shot.
It was great, honestly uh.
Let’S, let’s talk about this kid man, how you decorated, amateur as well, man, yeah yeah and that’s what i was telling most of his uh, his amateur uh amateur career um.
I was watching one of the fights he had against them.
One of the canadians, eric basron who’s, a very good um amateur himself, he’s a professional now too uh.
This was at the world championships a couple years ago, so you can definitely see um, kurt walker’s skill level, um he’s very good at being on his toes and doing that in an in and out style at the amateur level.
When you’re going for three rounds, you can you can afford to stay on your toes and be in and out, but it’s one thing to to do it at the amateur level, but at the pro he’s gon na have to see well as you’ve seen in his First fight, where he knocked dropped, the guy with a body shot, he’s already learning, learning to settle down and and to sit down a little bit more on his punches.
So he’s he’s adjusting to the program.
Um obviously, he’s still at the lower levels he’s just starting out, but he looks like he’s adjusting just fine to the pro game.
Oh he’s, i believe, he’s definitely adjusting very well man from what i’ve seen honestly uh this kid man, kurt walker, spent a better part of a decade excelling in the irish amateur system.
You know a standout run accumulating in an apparent appearance at the tokyo olympics.
Uh.
You know he hopes to replicate that in the paid ranks man uh the 27 year old native of lisbon, northern ireland signed a multi-year contract with top rank and is the latest european star to inca deal with promotional powerhouse uh.
You know: walker is managed by michael and jamie conlan uh, the belfast brothers, who had a front row seat to his development uh, their father, john conlon, coach walker is an amateur uh.
You know, walker said you know signing with top rank uh.
You know the best promoter in the game is a dream.
Come true.
You know this will help him to achieve his goals of becoming a world champion.
You know seeing how top rank builds their fighters into superstars was something that uh you know appealed to him uh.
He also wanted to thank michael and jamie conlon for making that possibility.
Uh, you know, alongside with top frank, you know this kid definitely um.
You know he fought.
He fought reagan man.
This is this is where some of these guys are going to remember him.
Uh walker fought reagan in the olympic quarter, finals uh, you know, with a guaranteed medal on the line reagan who is 4-0 as a pro earned.
The 3-2 split decision uh before running into reagan.
Walker upset uzbekistan’s gold medal favorite the 2019 world championship gold, medalist mira’s back near zakov, um walker establishes amateur credentials with gold medals at the 2019 european 2018 european championships, a silver medal at the 2018 commonwealth games and three consecutive irish senior titles from 2015 to 2017.
.
Um and honestly, i can’t wait for this man uh, you know this kid see him back back in action is definitely what we want to see uh when is his next scheduled, uh fight, uh next scheduled fight, uh, isn’t isn’t happening for a little while man february Right, yeah: well, no, he just fought in april, so you know uh.
You know this super featherweight prospect registered his second pro win um at wembley.
So if you guys remember that man uh, you know, walker accounted for.
Stefan, nicole, with relative ease on the other kind.
Undercard of that massive tyson, fury, delia white wbc world heavyweight title fight in london.
You know the olympian won every round and had his hand raised after shutting out the romanian.
You know, nicole 30 was never going to cause the belfast fighter.
Any real trouble uh, but was tough enough to give him a workout and took him off which matches this there.
This was on the fury, dillian, uh white guard and yeah.
He was on the other card uh.
You know the conlon’s boxer, debuted uh ended extra quick fashion as he stopped um jars love, harudel uh within a round uh.
The four rounds at wembley stadium were less eye-catching, but potentially a lot more beneficial to his development.
Right, like you know, we’ve we’ve talked about this before some of these.
You know young standout amateurs turn over to that pro rank and uh.
You know they end up and and ended up with these kind of soft opponents that just have these guys excel and build these amazing massive huge records.
So you know with all these undefeats this.
On the other hand, you know what he got taken: the distance by somebody uh.
You know who was able to bring him that distance, and you know it did benefit.
You know it does benefit the fighter very much man to be brought the distance by these.
You know tomato cans or gatekeepers, as we call them.
You know they’re there to you, know, bring it out of them.
Man they’re there to show them, make them work and not give them an easy fight, and that’s definitely what that second fight was for uh.
There’S a lot of these guys that are good, uh um that you might not know about.
You know they might not be good enough to be at the championship level, but they’re still good enough to beat 80 of fighters in the world.
So you still got to give them respect for that yeah.
Oh definitely.
Definitely this is uh.
This is just one of these things.
Man um, you know uh.
He was he’s he’s part of top ranks: big young brightest talents, man, you know, along with patty the real deal donovan, you know, featherweight kurt walker, and then you have kieran malloy um, these guys man.
They are returning august, the 6th.
So all three of these guys um, so the michael collins, miguel uh maraga undercard at the sec arena in belfast, is where we will see these three guys who i’ve profiled on this show and every single one patty the real deal: donovan kieran, malloy and now kurt Walker man, donovan, will appear in his first scheduled eight rounder, while walker and malloy will see action in separate six rounders.
All three boats will stream live and exclusively in the us on espn, plus the amp uh.
The espn plus stream is also scheduled to include belfast native padre uh mccroy, who is 13-0 with seven kos, defending his wbc international silver super middleweight belt.
In a ten round versus former world title challenger, marco antonio pierman uh.
You know this was promoted by top rank and common boxing uh.
You know this.
This is gon na, be a big one.
Man so guys mark that date on your calendar august, the sixth we got you know donovan who’s eating over six knockouts man from limerick.
Ireland is trained and managed by former middleweight world champion andy lee this stylish house last spot on the josh taylor, jack cadrell undercard in february um knocking out cervantes six rounds.
Donovan has been out of action, rehabbing a hand, injury.
We had him in the studio after that fight.
Remember for the interview uh.
If you guys do remember uh, then we got walker.
Man he’s 2-0 1ko from lisbon.
Northern ireland turned pro with a first round knockout on the taylor.
Cataract cart have anticipated debut following an amateur run that included that gold medal at the 2019 games uh.
You know you returned april 23rd, the tyson fury dillian white card and we know yes, four round decision over stephan, nicole guys, this kid be on the lookout for him and then you know we got kieran malloy 1-0, one knockout.
We will talk about this kid again in the future man native galway.
Ireland also turned pro on the taylor catterell bill and not just second-round stoppage over damian escuado um.
He was scheduled to fight june 18th on the veteran beef smith undercard, but his opponent tested positive for covent during that week, so in the lawrence malloy signed a professional contract with top rank after winning the irish national last title last october.
Anything you want to add cedric.
I know i’ve been talking about.
You know everybody’s ear off just my background, but this is what it is guys.
This is what we’re here for right: yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, my man, kurt walker um.
Did he win a medal at the olympics or world championships uh? So he has one of those.
Two he’s won gold medals at the 2019 european games, the 2018 european championships uh he won bronze at the european championships.
Uh bronze at the aba youth boxing championships.
He’S a silver european boxing, uh youth boxing champion and a silver commonwealth games.
Medalist he’s.
Never he didn’t meddle uh in the olympics.
He lost uh, he lost to duke reagan.
So that’s okay! He still has a you know, a lot, a lot of other um medals and championships under his belt and um.
You know just because you are a high level.
Amateur doesn’t necessarily mean you’re gon na automatically mean you’re gon na do well as a professional, but it does help you prepare as best for the situation um, so um, even though he’s still early in his career and, like i said you’ve seen him, make the adjustments Already, as far as sitting down to throw more power for those punches um, but you know you can see him make that adjustment already he’s a smart fighter.
That’S the other thing that fighting at the high levels as an amateur helps you at the professional ranks.
When you start pro you’re starting zero zero – and you have that that not just the physical experience of being in there, but like the mental experience of fighting against the best in the world from all styles tall tall people short people, you know, even though you’re all The same weight when you weigh in you know some guys hit harder.
Some guys are faster, so you get that experience fighting at the high levels of as an amateur like like kurt walker did and um.
You know.
I expect him to do big things as a pro.
Oh definitely, and you know, the good thing is man.
Is that listen, kurt walker? He is training in the same gym and under the same coach as his manager, michael common uh, who we’ve profiled before on the show.
You know, after spending that better part of a decade excelling in that irish amateur system uh, you know, he’s he’s he’s taking this uh he’s taking this paid ranks great man, and you know commonwealth games winner medal winner, confirmed con unboxing and top rank.
You know he like he, this kite, this guy ended up winning the lottery, pretty much man right out of the olympics, getting signed by a great you know a a great company like top rank, and then you know, michael conlon.
Also, a boxer is doing well for these guys man, so guys be on the lookout for this guy man be on the lookout for this kid he’s gon na do big things here, man um, you know i like the fact that he trains with his manager, which Is great [, Laughter, ], uh, paul cullen, curt one goal that the last european championships he was unlucky, uh versus the pro yankee yeah yeah uh, who was uh duke reagan, uh another one that was duke rankin that he was talking about yeah.
You know those guys that were at the olympics, man that u.
s olympic team, they did have a lot of uh.
You know great deals, the reason.
The reason for that was because they missed code that the olympics messed up the codeword from before, and they they didn’t realize that was gon na happen right so yeah.
That’S the only reason why it’s now they they turned pro and decided they changed their mind to just to go to the olympics.
They already had plans of going to the olympics, but when kovitz shut the world down, they didn’t get that opportunity at the time and no one knew when when it was going to happen again right exactly exactly and you never know but guys it is what it Is we’re here? It’S it’s wednesday, it’s hump day guys! Thank you for tuning in to today’s episode of knuckle up, make sure you join me tomorrow for another great installment of knuckle up featuring these young hungry undefeated undiscovered prospects from around the world, guys we’re the only channel out here doing this.
That’S why you’re tuning in to see us every day, we’ll see you tomorrow and if you haven’t yet guys, whatever streaming platform you’re on please hit up that subscribe, you know help us get to that 3000.
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Man, it’s your man, mike gore and cedric ben signing off saying knuckle up.
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