Walsh vs Ocampo Predictions: Zuffa Boxing offers a brave new world

Callum Walsh will kickstart Zuffa Boxing’s supposed revolution when he takes on Carlos Ocampo this Friday, January 23. The fight headlines the upstart company’s debut card at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. Paramount+ will carry the broadcast in the States, but no UK broadcaster had been announced at press time.

Read on for my Walsh vs Ocampo predictions as a new promotion throws their hat into boxing’s overcrowded ring.

Walsh vs Ocampo Odds

Walsh is installed as a 1/7 favourite as we go to press. Ocampo is bringing up the rear at 5/1. The draw is marketed at 18/1.

Walsh vs Ocampo Fight Preview

The 10-round super welterweight contest that headlines at the UFC Apex on Friday is only part of the story here. The lede is the new venture that UFC head honcho Dana White and Saudi boxing impresario Turki Alalshikh have put together.

On the surface, little looks to have changed. Walsh has fought in a few events screened live on UFC Fight Pass. He is a commodity that the MMA promotion cherishes and key to their baby steps in boxing.

While this is their debut event proper, Zuffa have been gradually extending their influence in boxing. White’s firm co-promoted the Terence Crawford vs Canelo Alvarez card, an event which saw some backlash but was helped by the historic main event papering over the cracks. 

White’s promise is to “fix” boxing. Not in that way, obviously. But by installing his own rankings and titles with a one-per-division ruler, like in UFC. But boxing is not the UFC. The vast majority of the best MMA fighters in the world fight inside the Octagon, lending their rankings and titles authority. But in boxing, the big talent is not yet signed with Zuffa. Any champions they could crown would be a problem, rather than a solution.

After all, we already have to endure the ‘four-belt era’. That is three too many titles. While White thinks making his own would solve the problem, it would simply toss another belt into the mix. Not at the ‘big four’ level either. White’s freshly-minted crowns would sit alongside the IBO, WBF, IBA and IBC belts in the melange of pointless pugilistic pursuits. The UFC dominated MMA because they helped pioneer it in the United States of America. Boxing has been here long before White was born and will be here long after he has passed. It morphs and mutates, and sometimes it festers and corrodes. But it endures. It always will, in one form or another.

How much say in that next form White and Alalshikh’s venture will have is anyone’s guess. The Saudi Entertainment Minister has money and has proven he can get big fights done. But one assumes that if Alalshikh saw Zuffa as the next big thing, he would have loaded this card in the manner of his Riyadh Season and The Ring events.

There are plans to produce bigger, more consequential cards to rival events like Canelo-Crawford. IBF, The Ring and lineal cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia has signed with the group. World-ranked heavyweight Efe Ajagba has signed on the dotted line, too. ‘The Silent Roller’ is scheduled to face former IBF titlist Charles Martin in February on what will be Zuffa’s third boxing outing.

As it is, this is your classic pre-Zuffa Boxing Callum Walsh card. The undefeated Irishman will pack fans into a mid-sized venue so they can watch him beat someone he really should be beating. No disrespect to Ocampo, but the 28-3 Mexican is here to play fall guy.

It is a role he has fulfilled in elite company. Errol Spence Jr and Tim Tszyu have both knocked him out in the first round of world title fights. Ocampo’s other loss was a unanimous decision to Sebastian Fundora in another belt challenge. 

The plus sides are that this guy only seems to lose to world champions. The kicker is that he usually does so quickly. Walsh can punch, with 11 knockouts in his 15 victories. The 24-year-old had to make do with a dominant points win over Fernando Vargas Jr last time out. That victory propelled Walsh up to fifth in the WBC rankings and fourth in the IBF equivalent.

A win over the unranked Ocampo is more about putting on a show than beating a challenger of real danger. Will a routine Walsh win kick off White’s journey to clean up the sport? It is hard to see how. But every promotion has to start somewhere. And to Zuffa’s credit, plenty of outfits would love a fighter like Callum Walsh in their ranks. If Zuffa get their way, the only place to see their fighters will be in their own insular rankings.

Walsh vs Ocampo Fight Card

Callum Walsh vs Carlos Ocampo

Cain Sandoval vs Julian Rodriguez

Misael Rodriguez Olivas vs Austin Deanda

Omar Cande Trinidad vs Max Ornelas

Floyd Diaz vs Guillermo Gutierrez

Emiliano Cardenas vs Marcus Cortez Harris

Robert Meriwether III vs Cesar Correa

Troy Nash vs Jaycob Ramos

Walsh vs Ocampo Prediction

Walsh is yet to prove one way or another whether he is a potential world champion. We know that men in that category usually deal with Ocampo quite handily. 

While I don’t foresee another first-round KO defeat for Ocampo, I do reckon Walsh wins this one rather comfortably at 1/7.

You can find all our latest boxing betting tips and analysis at our Betfred Insights Boxing page and our latest boxing odds here.