Now we have a clear image of what this is — a mid-tier event like an upmarket ProBox, with room for a few standalone shows with blue-chip acquisitions like Jai Opetaia, and, if rumors turn to reality, Oleksandr Usyk.
And they’re off.
Zuffa Boxing’s first event is now in the rear-view mirror, after a near-decade of UFC boss Dana White teasing the launch of this promotion.
Now, we have a clear image of what it is — a mid-tier event like an upmarket ProBox, with room for a few standalone signature shows with blue-chip acquisitions like Jai Opetaia, and, if rumors turn to reality, Oleksandr Usyk and maybe Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez too (though the latter is suddenly looking less likely).
Friday's event at the newly-branded Meta Apex featured some familiar names like Callum Walsh, Omar Trinidad and Cain Sandoval, together with fresh faces like Robert Meriwether III and Troy Nash.
There were highlight moments, but not everything was a knockout for Zuffa’s debut. And so Uncrowned ran the rule on the standout moments, for better — or for worse.
Loser: Callum Walsh
The stocky Irish fighter has long been pushed as a face of Zuffa's upstart promotion, but Callum Walsh is entering dangerous territory as his performances are no longer justifying the hype he has received.
At 24 years old, there remains a significant amount of time for Walsh to improve, particularly when it comes to his porous defense, but he has now flattered to deceive twice in a row on a big stage set for him, as he labored to a win over Fernando Vargas on the Canelo-Crawford undercard in 2025, and had to climb off the canvas to out-point Carlos Ocampo in a forgettable main event on Friday night.
Walsh may be a knockout loss just waiting to happen unless he can block, or evade, some of the hammering shots that the better fighters at middleweight will throw at him.
Winner: Robert Meriwether III
One of my greatest regrets this year was omitting Robert Meriwether III from my list of 26 fighters ready to break into another level in 2026.
I’ve followed Meriwether’s career since his U.S. debut, which was only his second-ever pro fight. He carried an incredible amount of swag to the ring that night, with a crown already on his head, and then dazzled in the ring with a technical flair.
I’ve watched him train and spar frequently in Las Vegas gyms and always felt he deserved the level of media interest that prospect darling Curmel Moton has long garnered.
But as Meriwether only fought once last year, and had at that time no promotional attachment, it seemed he was missing the runway that could capture and promote his talent.
Well, Meriwether now has that platform in Zuffa Boxing. He beat Cesar Correa after six rounds, collected a $50,000 performance-related bonus check, and should be the future face Zuffa builds its roster around.
Loser: Dana White
Before the UFC boss Dana White entered — and helped revolutionize — mixed martial arts, he had a love for boxing, and Friday’s event was not his first foray in the sport. He memorably helped promote the fight game’s ultimate crossover, Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor, nine years ago.
White, during that press tour, bellowed, turned red and promoted his head off.
But that White was nowhere to be seen in the build-up to TKO’s Saul "Canelo" Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford show late last year. In fact, he no-showed the post-fight presser.
This past week, he also seemed unamused and said after Friday's show that it could have gone better.
There is a stark contrast from White’s approach to promotion 10 years ago and today, as his spark for the sport appears to have gone.
Winners: Tom Loeffler and Rian Scalia
In 2023, UFC and WWE merged to form TKO Group Holdings, and I remember telling Dana White that, with the biggest company in MMA and the 800-pound gorilla from sports entertainment under the same roof, that there appeared to be a big, boxing-shaped hole.
He agreed. And said he’d create one, before hinting that of all people in boxing, it would be Tom Loeffler who would help him run it.
Though White is front and center, many of the Zuffa fighters have been developed by Loeffler, who hit the big time before through his relationships with Kevin Kelley, the Klitschko brothers and Gennadiy Golovkin. Now, he’s hitting the big time again.
White once told me Loeffler is boxing’s “best matchmaker,” but he also appears to be receiving strong support from Rian Scalia, who joined Zuffa from ProBox, as this card — together with subsequent ones — seems to have Scalia’s fingerprints.
Considering the niche Zuffa is looking to fill — mid-tier fight cards filled with 50/50 bouts — it may be regarded as a ProBox 2.0, a good compliment, and that will be down to Loeffler and Scalia combined.
Loser: Max Kellerman
For many, including White, Max Kellerman was one of the voices for the sport during the HBO days.
But the Kellerman of HBO seems to be gone.
American combat sports broadcasting long contrasted the British booths, as UK-based presenters unashamedly root for the home fighter. This was largely absent from HBO or Showtime broadcasts.
Kellerman, these days, has flipped that on his head as he’s now rooting for the promotion on which he’s the voice.
At the start of Friday's event, Kellerman said he’d been waiting since he was a child for there to be a major league of boxing, alluding to Zuffa Boxing’s arrival as the catalyst for that.
The card, and Zuffa’s schedule, is interesting enough in its context to prevent descending into hyperbole, but Kellerman did it again, later in the show, when he compared Walsh — a regional fighter for now — to Roy Jones Jr., one of boxing’s all-time movers.
Winners: The production team
Zuffa made a number of strong acquisitions on-camera, with Joe Tessitore — one of the voices of the boxing video game "Fight Night Round 2" from 2005 — and Andre Ward, a Hall of Fame boxer.
The quality of in-house production, and the pacing, was excellent and far improved from how slowly the Canelo-Crawford show moved. If this is something the TKO crew borrow from UFC shows, then it’s a welcome addition in boxing.
Loser: Zuffa fighters
One of the glaring differences between MMA and boxing in the modern era has been how the mandatory UFC uniforms limit the personality and sponsors that boxers often display during their walkouts for their biggest bouts.
But Friday showed this is no longer just for UFC fighters, with Zuffa boxers now also required to wear corporate-aligned outfits, and Zuffa-branded gloves.
Ultimately, this serves the corporation and not the fighters themselves, who have reduced options should their fame enhance to a point in which they could have sold real estate on their own outfits.
It’s a shame for the athletes that this has now entered the sport.
Category: General Sports
