Colorado featherweight Troy Nash (5-0-1) arrives in Zuffa Boxing with the backing of his family, and a dream of becoming a champion. Nash and Jaycob Ramos (4-0) will share the honor of being the fighters involved in the first fight in Zuffa Boxing history when they kick off the show at Zuffa Boxing 01 at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas on Friday night. For Nash, it's the start of an thrilling new adventure after a promising start to his professional boxing career. "Man, I'm excited," he told UFC.com during a fight week sit-down interview this week. "You know, this was a long time coming. I had a lot of companies offer me, but Zuffa was the one that I felt was the best fit for me. And everything that comes along with being a Zuffa fighter just been a great experience. How they treated me and my team is wonderful, so it feels great to be a part of this."
"My uncles and my father used to box before I was born, and just fighting around the neighborhood and stuff kind of got me into boxing," he explained. "Instead of fighting in the streets, I started going to the gym and fighting kids in the gym, and that's kind of what made me want to stick with it. I remember I went to New Mexico with my uncle for a fight, and just the passion that I had for it as a young kid, I just felt so much into the fight. And then, once I started fighting myself, it was like something that I just did every single day at school – all I could think about was boxing, so I knew that was it was for me."
Nash made his pro debut in March 2024 and, despite being a new face on the card, he helped pack out the Boulder Theater as he claimed a unanimous decision victory to get his career off to a winning start. While a debut victory is always a sweet memory for a fighter, Nash said it was the response from the crowd that really resonated with him that night. "The thing I remember most was all my family that showed up, because it was in Boulder, about two hours away from my hometown, and I still sold, I think, 2,000 tickets, something like that," he recalled. "So, to sell out the venue in my pro debut, and just hearing all the fans going wild and everything, that was great."
Since then, Nash has gone on to add four more victories to his ledger and while his last outing saw him fight to a split draw in the WBC Grand Prix quarter-finals in Riyadh, Nash had already shown more than enough to convince the Zuffa Boxing brass to offer him a contract.
He'll face Ramos on Friday night in a 129-pound catchweight contest over six rounds in a battle of undefeateds. Nash said he knows he'll face a stern test of his skills, but said that it should result in an entertaining matchup for the fans. "I think my opponent is going to come tough and ready to fight," he said. "You know, this is my fifth or sixth undefeated opponent that I'm taking on now in my young career. So I know that a guy that's undefeated, he's not coming to lay down, and he'll come in there and give it his all. So it's going to be a great fight."
As well as his family, Nash revealed that he also received some valuable encouragement early in his boxing journey from a multi-time world champion. "Growing up as a kid, Adrien Broner actually trained at my gym, so he would come from Cincinnati to train in Colorado," Nash explained. "Just watching him fight... and then having him actually come and train next to us and give me motivation and words as a seven, eight-year-old kid, it made me really want to stick with boxing. And so him, and then Floyd Mayweather, are definitely people I looked up to as a kid a lot."
Inspired by the skills of the likes of Broner and Mayweather, and backed by his family, including his father, who corners and trains him, Nash is ready to step into the Meta APEX and introduce himself to the wider boxing world. "I want (the fans) to know that I'm a great boxer in the ring. I take my time, break my opponents down," he said. "The fans will be watching a great fight, and then, boom, something exciting will just happen out of nowhere. So, I want the fans to just not leave their seat, pay attention the whole time, because it's going to be a masterclass going on – and then a knockout."
He's already guaranteed to make history by competing in the first-ever Zuffa Boxing bout, but Nash admitted he'd love to etch his name into the record books as one of the first fighters to make their way up the ladder and eventually win a Zuffa belt. "Oh, that'll mean a lot. That means it's history," he smiled."I'll be the first one of the first Zuffa world champions ever. We got a long way to go, as far as the history of Zuffa Boxing, and for my name to be submitted as one of the first champions ever, I know that would be great. It's going to go down in history."
