The primary essential occasion of the Zuffa Boxing period is ready. UFC president and CEO Dana White introduced that the Jan. 23 occasion from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas could be headlined by a junior middleweight bout between Callum Walsh and Carlos Ocampo. The cardboard will stream reside on Paramount+ and happen the night time earlier than UFC 324 on the T-Cell Enviornment in Las Vegas.
Walsh (15-0, 11 KO) has been closely hyped by White for years, with a number of of Walsh’s fights streamed on UFC Struggle Cross. With TKO’s enlargement into the boxing world with the brand new promotion, Zuffa Boxing, Walsh appeared like a positive factor to have been an anchor for the brand new promotional physique, and his headline spot confirms these suspicions.
Up to now, Walsh has lived as much as the hype, impressively dispatching of a string of decrease and mid-tier fighters. He at the moment sits because the No. 4-ranked junior middleweight by the IBF, in addition to No. 5 and No. 13 by the WBC and WBO, respectively.
In his most up-to-date outing, Walsh took a unanimous choice 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 person with way more high-level expertise, although Ocampo has come up brief in his largest fights.
Ocampo’s three losses have come in opposition to 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. Each Spence and Tszyu stopped Ocampo within the first spherical.
For the reason that loss to Tszyu, Ocampo has rattled off a trio of stoppage wins in opposition to club-level fighters.
There will probably be two further essential card bouts on the Z01 card. Additionally within the middleweight division, Misael Rodriguez will tackle Austin Deanda. Rodriguez is 14-0 as a professional with seven knockouts. He additionally earned a bronze medal for Mexico on the 2016 Summer time Olympics. Deanda, in the meantime, is 17-0 as a professional with 11 knockouts.
Plus, Julian Rodriguez and Cain Sandoval are set to throw down within the welterweight division. Rodriguez is 24-1 with 15 knockouts as a professional whereas Sandoval is 17-0 with 15 knockouts.
