Dean Walsh (born 25 June 1994) is current 2023 71 kg national elite Irish champion. His achievements include five Irish Elite titles and a bronze medal at the 2015 European Championships in Bulgaria.

Amateur career

Walsh boxed for St. Ibar's Boxing Club,

Wexford Wexford () is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N11 N ...

where he was trained by his uncle Billy Walsh. Walsh started boxing in 2001 before participating in the 2010 European Junior Championships in Ukraine, where he finished sixth. In 2011, he finished runner-up at the Irish Youth Championships, won the Irish Intermediate Championships in 2012, and won the Irish U-22 Championships 2013. At the Feliks Stamm Tournament in 2014 he won a bronze medal after beating Bogdan Vikazin in the semi-finals before being eliminated by

Vitaly Dunaytsev Vitaly Vladimirovich Dunaytsev (russian: Виталий Владимирович Дунайцев; born 12 April 1992) is a Russian amateur light welterweight boxer. He won gold medals at the 2015 World Championships and 2015 European Champio ...

. He debuted in the Irish Elite Championships in the light welterweight division. His first Irish Elite title came in 2014 at light welterweight. Walsh would go on to win a total of four Irish Elite titles across two weights including winning the award for Best Irish Boxer twice. In 2015, he competed at the European Championships in Samokov, Bulgaria, beating Florentin Niculescu from Romania in the 'Round of 32' and Hungary's Georgian Mihai Nyeki in the quarter-final but lost in the semi-finals on points against

of Russia.

Professional career

Walsh spoke of his desire to turn professional in 2018, but decided to remain in the amateur ranks and target qualification for the

2020 Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. However, after postponement of the Tokyo Olympiad, Walsh decided to turn professional in August 2020.

Prison

In November 2019, Walsh pleaded guilty to two charges of assault stemming from an incident in 2017, in which one victim was left with a broken jaw, fractured cheekbone and requiring a metal plate to be inserted into his skull. Walsh was placed on bail with a sentencing hearing scheduled for February 2020. In December 2020, he was sentenced to four years imprisonment, with the final 18 months suspended.

References

External links

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Profile for Dean Walsh
from

AIBA The International Boxing Association (IBA), previously known as the Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur (AIBA), is an independent sport organization that sanctions amateur (Olympic-style) boxing matches and awards world and subordinate cha ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walsh, Dean 1994 births Living people Irish male boxers Light-welterweight boxers Welterweight boxers Boxers from County Wexford Irish people convicted of assault Irish male criminals Irish prisoners and detainees European Games competitors for Ireland Boxers at the 2023 European Games