Meet White’s favourite boxer as Zuffa Boxing launches

On Friday at the UFC’s Apex in Las Vegas, Callum Walsh will kick off Dana White’s boxing era.

Zuffa Boxing, backed by the UFC chief and Saudi Arabian money, will finally have its first event with a 24-year-old Irishman at the helm.

The light-middleweight, however, is no stranger to how the UFC operate.

Walsh has built his career through the UFC as White’s de facto favourite, and first, boxer.

He has fought the majority of his boxing career on UFC Fight Pass, with White in his corner, and as a result was a natural choice to headline his fledgling boxing organisation.

“Dana has seen the mindset I had, the skills I had and I think the perfect one to represent the boxing side of the UFC,” Walsh told BBC Sport about his rapid rise.

“I’ve always been around the UFC. So it was always natural for me to fight with Zuffa.”

Walsh will face veteran Carlos Ocampo. The event will be a low-key opening amid the UFC 324 fight week and is being held at the UFC Apex, where the MMA promotions host several of its fight nights without fans.

So how did a young Irishman end up White’s first boxer? How did he go from working on a fishing boat one week to working under legendary coach Freddie Roach?

And how will the arrival of Zuffa Boxing affect the sport?

Walsh was once a promising amateur with a record of 25 wins and nine losses. He wanted to make the Irish Olympic team, but then the Covid-19 pandemic hit and those dreams were dashed.

He was already working on a fishing boat seven days a week.

It was gruelling work and when the boxing stopped, Walsh decided he would move to Los Angeles and knock on the door of Roach’s legendary Wild Card Boxing Club gym.

Walsh sparred his first day and has been there ever since. He didn’t go home for two years and couldn’t work without a visa.

“I was making no money. Sleeping on the couch for a long time. I bought a car and then I crashed it. So many things happened that I thought I should go home,” Walsh said, but he stayed and eventually got his green card.

He credits the fishing job, along with his own relentless personal drive, with keeping him focused.

“It showed me that I don’t want to go back there, made me see the reality of life,” Walsh said.

He made his professional debut aged 20 at the Quiet Cannon Country Club in California.

He then signed with promoter Tom Loeffler, who was finalising a deal to put boxing on UFC Fight Pass.

Already a massive UFC fan, Walsh couldn’t believe his luck. Even more so when he was given the co-main slot for Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez v Terence Crawford last September.

It adds more pressure on Walsh, but he feels “destined” to live up to it.

“I always believe that I could make a living from fighting,” he said.

“I always felt like I had more to do. I believed it and here I am.

“[Greatness] doesn’t look like undefeated. It looks like a man that gave it all and fought anybody.”

Walsh’s relationship with White is now official with the arrival of Zuffa Boxing.

But the boxing entity has attracted as much suspicion as anticipation.

The UFC business model that has created a billion pound enterprise is effectively banned in US boxing.

The Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act places safeguards against exclusive and restrictive contracts and among other things, prohibits boxing promotions from having belts and crowning their own world champions – a cornerstone of the UFC.

A legislative effort, led by White and the TKO Group which owns the UFC and WWE, continues in the US to significantly alter the Ali Act.

It has led to concerns that boxers will earn less and have less control over their futures. Despite this, Walsh says he had no concerns with signing with Zuffa Boxing.

“I don’t get involved with the politics in boxing or the rules. I just show up and fight,” he said.

“There was no sell. Dana’s been with me my entire career so if Dana White is starting a boxing organisation I will 100% fight there.”

White’s ultimate aim is to sideline boxing sanctioning bodies – WBO, WBC, IBF and WBA – and make Zuffa Boxing’s belt the premier world title alongside the Ring Magazine title, an organisation owned by Saudi’s boxing powerbroker Turki Alalshikh.

When Zuffa Boxing released their first promotional video, there was a glimpse of a branded belt.

Walsh says it “makes a lot more sense to have belt per weight class”.

But it leaves Walsh’s immediate future uncertain as he aims to step up to world title level in the next 12 months.

The signing of IBF cruiserweight world champion Jai Opetia also raises questions about how Zuffa Boxing will work. The organisation says every fighter in action on Friday is now signed exclusively to them.

The reforms to the Ali Act still need to pass for Zuffa Boxing to have their own belt.

“I don’t really know how it will work with the sanctioning bodies. But definitely I plan to be the Zuffa Boxing champion,” Walsh said.

“I think they’ll have some of the biggest fighters in the world here in 12 months.”