Dana White has shown strong belief in Callum Walsh by giving him the main event slot for the first Zuffa Boxing show.
Walsh is set to take on Carlos Ocampo at the UFC’s Apex facility on Friday, January 23. This will be the first boxing event streamed on Paramount+, kicking off just a day before UFC 324 and the start of a massive $7.7 billion deal between Paramount+ and Zuffa Boxing.
The 24-year-old Irishman has yet to taste defeat in his professional career, holding a perfect 15-0 record. Ocampo, now 30, brings far more experience with a record of 38-3. All three of his losses have come in title fights against Tim Tszyu, Sebastian Fundora and Errol Spence Jr.
First Zuffa boxing main event announced by Dana White
Dana White has announced that Irish prospect Callum Walsh will face Carlos Ocampo in the main event of the first ever Zuffa Boxing show, just two weeks before fight night.
White was speaking to Stephen A Smith on Sirius XM when he made the announcement and hyped up his headline match: “We have this kid named Ocampo who is a seasoned veteran, his only losses are in title fights, three title fight losses. He has more knockouts than Callum [Walsh] has fights, Callum is undefeated 15-0.”
“That’s the main event, it should be a bad a– boxing event,” he said.
Dana White’s ambitious plan to reshape boxing
Dana White and Turki Alalshikh have made no secret of their intention to shake up the boxing world. They’re aiming to move away from the traditional sanctioning bodies — like the WBA, WBO, IBF, and WBC — and bring in a structure more in line with what we see in MMA.
“I’ve been talking smack about boxing for a long time and now it’s time to put my money where my mouth is,” he joked. “I’m going to get rid of the sanctioning organizations, the best will fight the best, we’re going to sign all the up-and-coming guys.
“If you break into the top ten and you’re still undefeated, your undefeated record means something, you know what I mean? Everybody is undefeated in boxing because nobody fights anybody. Everybody will fight everybody.
“Then when you’re undefeated you’ll be like Jon Jones, he is undefeated, nobody has ever beat Jon Jones and he fought the best in the world, then he moved up to heavyweight and walked right through the guy. Your 0 will actually mean something in boxing in the next couple of years.”