Callum Walsh vs. Carlos Ocampo to headline first Zuffa Boxing event on Paramount+
The first main event of the Zuffa Boxing era is set. UFC President and CEO Dana White announced that the Jan. 23 event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas will feature a junior middleweight bout between Callum Walsh and Carlos Ocampo. The card will stream live on Paramount+ and take place the day before UFC 324 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Walsh (15-0, 11 KO) has been heavily hyped by White for years, with several of Walsh’s fights broadcast on UFC Fight Pass. With TKO expanding into the boxing world with the new promotion, Zuffa Boxing, Walsh seemed like a sure bet to have been an anchor for the new promotional body, and his title confirms those suspicions.
So far, Walsh has lived up to the hype, impressively dispatching a string of lower- and mid-ranked fighters. He is currently ranked as the No. 4 junior middleweight by the IBF, as well as No. 5 and No. 13 by the WBC and WBO, respectively.
In his last outing, Walsh took a unanimous decision over Fernando Vargas Jr. on the undercard of Terence Crawford’s victory over Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
In Ocampo (38-3, 26 KOs), Walsh faces a man with much more top-level experience, even though Ocampo has come up short in his biggest fights.
Ocampo’s three losses came against Errol Spence Jr. for the IBF welterweight title in 2018, Sebastian Fundora for the WBC interim junior middleweight title in 2022 and Tim Tszyu for the WBO interim title in 2023. Both Spence and Tszyu stopped Ocampo in the first round.
Since the loss to Tszyu, Ocampo has three stoppage victories against club-level fighters.
There will be two additional main card fights on the Z01 card. Also in the middleweight division, Misael Rodriguez will face Austin Deanda. Rodriguez is 14-0 as a professional with seven knockouts. He also won a bronze medal for Mexico at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Deanda, meanwhile, is 17-0 as a pro with 11 knockouts.
Additionally, Julian Rodriguez and Cain Sandoval are expected to step up to the welterweight division. Rodriguez is 24-1 with 15 knockouts as a professional while Sandoval is 17-0 with 15 knockouts.
