Callum Walsh wants to demonstrate Thursday night that the hype is justified.

His renowned trainer, Freddie Roach, believes Walsh can become a junior middleweight world champion within the next year. The Irish southpaw’s promoter, Tom Loeffler, is convinced Walsh will be good enough and popular enough to become a bona fide box office attraction at Madison Square Garden.

The confident Walsh welcomes the pressure. The Cork, Ireland native cannot wait to test himself against his most imposing opponent to date, Bronx-based Ismael Villarreal, in a 10-round, 154-pound main event ufcfightpass.com will stream from The Theater at Madison Square Garden (8 p.m. EDT; $9.99 per month).

“I’m looking forward to this next fight,” Walsh told BoxingScene.com. “It’s a step up for me. It’s a step up in arena, step up in opponent, and it’s gonna be a good night for me to prove to everybody how good I really am.”

Roach realized how good Walsh could be the first day he walked into Roach’s renowned Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California. It was a sparring day in March 2021 and Walsh didn’t hesitate to jump in the ring to prove himself against anyone Roach picked.

Walsh didn’t even know if he’d turn pro at that point. He had planned to represent Ireland at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, but he wanted to resume his amateur career after the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the Olympics back a year.

He instead made his pro debut in December 2021 and has gone 8-0, including seven knockouts, in less than two years.

“Callum really exhibits the qualities in the ring of becoming a champion, with all the amateur experience he has and he’s made a great transition to a professional style with Freddie Roach,” said Loeffler, who was instrumental in Gennadiy Golovkin becoming a star in the United States. “He’s a big-punching southpaw. But also, it’s his character outside the ring and also his charisma outside the ring.

“He’s great with social media. He’s a very likeable guy. He’s got that Irish confidence, which the fans love, similar to Conor McGregor. But, you know, he seems to have it all. It’s just a matter of him showing it in the ring when it comes to fight night.”

Villarreal (13-1, 9 KOs) can punch, too. Loeffler thinks Walsh’s opponent should be undefeated because Villarreal deserved to defeat Ardreal Holmes Jr. (14-0, 5 KOs), a southpaw from Flint, Michigan who won their televised 10-round bout by split decision February 17 in Topeka, Kansas.

The 26-year-old Villarreal defeated previously unbeaten LeShawn Rodriguez (13-1, 10 KOs) and John David Martinez (19-3, 16 KOs) by technical knockout in his respective bouts before and after his close loss to Holmes. Villarreal is considered a stiffer test than Argentina’s Juan Jose Velasco (24-5, 15 KOs), whom Walsh stopped after the fourth round of his last fight, because Villarreal is 10 years younger than Velasco, has never been knocked out and is a natural 154-pound fighter.

“I feel like I’ve never taken an easy path in my life,” Walsh said. “Even in the amateurs, I’ve always fought the best. I never ducked anybody. I’ve never dodged anybody. And that’s what I wanna do in my pro career. I don’t wanna take easy fights. And if Tom puts opponents in front of me that aren’t worthy of being there, I’ll just finish them in 20, 30 seconds. They’ll be one-round fights and that won’t do me any good.

“I won’t gain anything from them, so I need these tough fights, tough opponents, just to get a couple of rounds and be on the fast track. I’m sparring on the top level anyway, so they’ve seen me spar at that level and seen what I can do. So, they feel like I’m ready and I feel like I’m ready.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.