The first main event of the Zuffa Boxing era is set. UFC president and CEO Dana White announced that the Jan. 23 event from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas would be headlined by a junior middleweight bout between Callum Walsh and Carlos Ocampo. The card will stream live on Paramount+ and take place the night before UFC 324 at the 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 streamed on UFC Fight Pass. With TKO's expansion into the boxing world with the new promotion, Zuffa Boxing, Walsh seemed like a sure thing to have been an anchor for the new promotional body, and his headline spot confirms those suspicions.
Thus far, Walsh has lived up to the hype, impressively dispatching of a string of lower and mid-tier fighters. He currently sits as the No. 4-ranked junior middleweight by the IBF, as well as No. 5 and No. 13 by the WBC and WBO, respectively.
In his most recent outing, Walsh took a unanimous decision over Fernando Vargas Jr. on the undercard of Terence Crawford's win over Saul "Canelo" Alvarez.
In Ocampo (38-3, 26 KO), Walsh faces a man with far more high-level experience, though Ocampo has come up short in his biggest fights.
Ocampo's three losses have come 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 interim WBO title in 2023. Both Spence and Tszyu stopped Ocampo in the first round.
Since the loss to Tszyu, Ocampo has rattled off a trio of stoppage wins against club-level fighters.
There will be two additional main card bouts on the Z01 card. Also in the middleweight division, Misael Rodriguez will take on Austin Deanda. Rodriguez is 14-0 as a pro with seven knockouts. He also earned a bronze medal for Mexico at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Deanda, meanwhile, is 17-0 as a pro with 11 knockouts.
Plus, Julian Rodriguez and Cain Sandoval are set to throw down in the welterweight division. Rodriguez is 24-1 with 15 knockouts as a pro while Sandoval is 17-0 with 15 knockouts.
