Errol Spence Jr. never heard of Carlos Ocampo before fight
Errol Spence Jr. vs. Carlos Ocampo goes down on Saturday, June 16. Spence is fighting in front of his hometown of Dallas and is a heavy favorite.
Errol Spence Jr. (23-0, 20 KOs) is quickly moving up boxing’s pound-for-pound rankings. He stopped Kell Brook and Lamont Peterson in his last two fights but now defends his IBF welterweight title against unknown Carlos Ocampo (22-0, 13 KOs). Don’t feel bad if you don’t know who Ocampo is — Spence barely knows who he is, either.
During Tuesday’s media conference call, Spence admitted to reporters that he had never heard of Ocampo before the fight was signed.
“I didn’t know who [Ocampo] was to tell you the truth,” said Spence.
The IBF deemed Ocampo as Spence’s mandatory challenger. Ocampo is number three on the IBF’s welterweight rankings. In most boxing sanctioning bodies, a boxer has to defend their title against the organization’s mandatory challenger once a year. Once that obligation is met, the champion can defend their title against boxers of their choice for a 12 month period.
Spence is happy for an opportunity to meet the IBF’s mandatory challenger now rather than later.
“My original thought was let’s do it,” said Spence. “I would rather get it out of the way now so it’s not a bump in the road later on when I’m trying to get bigger and better fights. So I would rather get my mandatory out of the way right now.”
By the numbers, Ocampo has an impressive record. However, upon further inspection, Ocampo’s record reveals that he has never fought a notable opponent. He has never fought outside his home country of Mexico and never challenged for a world title.
To say that Ocampo is an underdog is a massive understatement. The Sports Book Review has Ocampo at +2739. Roughly, Ocampo is facing 27-1 odds. Vegas doesn’t have much respect for Ocampo and they shouldn’t. He has no business challenging for a world title at this point in his career.
Spence should put on an exciting, one-sided show in front of his hometown. Anything less than stopping Ocampo would be adverse to Spence’s career and reputation. The welterweight division is loaded with talent, and Spence needs to look extremely good against Ocampo if he wants to be mentioned alongside the likes of Terence Crawford.
Spence built his reputation by dismantling Brook and Peterson. He needs to do even better against the lightly regarded Ocampo. Most expect Spence to fight a top-tier welterweight after Ocampo. He believes that he will fight premiere welterweights in his next several fights.
“When I get the fights that I want, as soon as I get the top five welterweights in the ring with me, I will be lowered down to the top five pound-for-pound with my performance,” declared Spence.
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If Ocampo beat Spence, it would be one of the biggest upsets in sporting history, but that’s incredibly unlikely. Look for Spence to break down the untested Ocampo in six or seven rounds. It would be shocking if Ocampo ended the fight on his feet.