Zuffa Boxing 1 went down last night (Fri., Jan. 23, 2026) inside Meta Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, ushering in a new era in the boxing world spearheaded by Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) CEO, Dana White. In the headlining act — which streamed on Paramount + — rising Irish sensation Callum Walsh, dominated Carlos Ocampo for 10 rounds to secure a unanimous decision win.
Get a full recap of that fight here.
The rest of the card featured several up-and-coming prospects such as Misael Rodriguez, Omar
Trinidad and Troy Nash, just to name a few, who are looking to carve a space for themselves under the Zuffa banner in hopes of making it big in the boxing world.
The event started off as a dream for White, who had this vision way back to the days when UFC was under the Zuffa banner. In fact, White started off in the boxing world — albeit in the minor leagues — before he shifted his attention to mixed martial arts (MMA).
This arena, however, is an entirely different once because boxing has been established for decades while MMA was in its infancy when White came in to help turn it around. The sport of boxing is filled with super stars raking in millions and, despite popular belief, is still very much alive and well. According to White, though, the sport needs a face lift and he feels he’s the one to make it happen. And he knows all too well that it will not happen over night since he aims to build young, up-and-coming talent, all while promoting events with established stars.
So how did the first event go? Let’s take a look at some of the best and worst moments of the first event.
Let’s start with the production. After UFC signed a billion-dollar deal with Paramount+ for UFC shows, it was pretty much a given that it would be Zuffa Boxing’s home, as well. That said, there isn’t much to complain about when it comes to the visuals of the actual production. It was clean, crisp and easy on the eyes. Will there be tweaks moving forward? Of course. But for it being the first event I have no major complaints whatsoever. I can not, however, say the same thing for a lot of international viewers who had trouble with the stream all night, which included getting shut out for a lot of the fights due to a copyright snafu.
Final Grade B- …. (International Graders will likely give it an F)
On that note, the pacing of the fights was great. There was little-to-no wait time in between fights so the action never stopped. I’m reminded of the old PFL days where we had to wait forever from one fight to the next and the events simply dragged on. Boxing events can, at times, feel that way, and some appreciate it since they don’t mind the in-between chatter from the hosts and broadcast team to preview the next one. It will be interesting to see if this will be the norm when bigger stars are on deck.
Final Grade B+
On to the fights themselves. I will admit that they were entertaining for the most part. All but two went the distance, but neither stoppage was a blistering knockout. And that’s okay because it won’t always be that way. Oscar de la Hoya was quick to clown on the event because he, like I’m sure many, was expecting Dana to come out of the gates with massive names and a big arena. That simply wasn’t going to be a realistic thing. Yes, Dana promoted Crawford vs. Canelo, but that fight was with the aide of several other major players in the game. This event felt like your weekly “UFC Fight Night” event at the Meta Apex. But the fights were solid, at the end of the day, but nothing to write home about. In the main event Walsh could have done a bit more, but Ocampo isn’t exactly a scrub since his other defeats have come against Sebastian Fundora, Errol Spence Jr. and Tim Tszyu.
Final Grade C+
On to the setting. UFC fans and some fighters have just about had it with the Apex. Despite Dana’s promises to stage more fights out of the home venue, it hasn’t happened, and it seems that this will be the home for Zuffa Boxing for a while. I did appreciate being able to here every punch, but many simply don’t like the small venues. That said, the Meta Apex is expected to expand in the coming months, allowing more fans to fill the arena…but not up to 10,000. It will also be interesting to see how long it will take Dana White to host events in bigger venues and in other cities.
Final Grade B-…?
Now let’s talk about the broadcast team. There were a lot of familiar faces last night, as well as some new ones including one of my personal favorites, Joe Tessitore, on play-by-play, who was flanked by longtime boxing analyst Max Kellerman and former champion, Andre Ward. Former ESPN First Take host, Molly Qerim, was announced as the host of Zuffa Boxing, her first gig since unexpectedly leaving Stephen A. Smith and Co. late last year. Joining her was Heidi Androl, Antonio Tarver, and Mike Coppinger. Pegged as ring announcer is none other than Joe Martinez, and who doesn’t love Joe Martinez?
It’s a very solid team, and I do expect guest hosts down the road. For the most part everyone handled their duties well, but I have to say, as much as I appreciate Max Kellerman’s knowledge of boxing, he was simply way too much for me last night. I get it, you have a new gig, new bosses and you have to do your part to sell the upstart promotion, but his insistence of trying to shove Zuffa Boxing down our throat as the greatest thing ever was a bit nauseating and frustrating.
At one point he said this:
If he is expected to be the Joe Rogan of Zuffa Boxing he is going to have to polish it up a bit.
Final Grade C–
All in all it was a decent, not great, start for Zuffa Boxing, and even Dana White admitted post-fight that the promotion has a lot to do moving forward to improve. And that is expected because you are rarely going to hit a home run in your first at bat.
“The fights were great,” said White during the post-fight press conference (via Sports Illustrated). “But, we’ve got a lot of work to do. We will catch our stride in the next three, four, or five [events]. By the end of the year, we’ll be where I want to be,” he added before reminding everyone that UFC’s dominance took time, as well.
“I have a whole list of stuff that we will go through on Monday, me and the team. But it took 25 years to get UFC to where it is today. It’s a very well-oiled machine, and we will do it it in much less time on the boxing side.”
What would you grade Zuffa Boxing 1?
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