If you're having trouble remembering whether you've ever heard the name of IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr.'s next opponent, you're not alone.
Before Carlos Ocampo (22-0, 13 KOs), a native of Mexico who has never fought outside of his home country and glaringly lacks a signature victory, was ordered by the IBF to be the mandatory opponent for Saturday's title bout, even Spence (23-0, 20 KOs) had to look him up.
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"I didn't know who he was, to tell you the truth; I don't pay attention to the rankings," Spence said during Tuesday's conference call. "But that doesn't mean nothing. There's a lot of fighters that pop up out of the blue, that you never heard of. They just don't have the management or the promotion team or the spotlight, you know, to be seen. That's the ones you've gotta watch out for."
The 28-year-old Spence, a rising star ranked among the top pound-for-pound boxers in the world, returns to his backyard of Texas when the Desoto native faces Ocampo (Showtime, 9 p.m. ET) at The Ford Center at The Star; the indoor athletic facility shared by the Dallas Cowboys in Frisco.
Fresh off a dominant victory over Lamont Peterson in January, Spence decided to get his mandatory opponent out of the way now, during a period where getting other top welterweights inside the ring against him has been difficult. Not only would Spence, who describes himself as "old school," prefer to be facing the likes of fellow 147-pound titleholders Keith Thurman or Terence Crawford right now, so would his fans.
"I'm ready to line up those other champions," Spence said. "I've said that since I was 15-0. I want to fight every opponent and take them out no matter who it is. I'm here to prove that I'm the best in the division."
The southpaw Spence appears headed toward a long-term collision course with Crawford, who won his first welterweight title last Saturday by stopping Jeff Horn, despite the fact that a fight between the two would be difficult to make thanks to each fighter's promotional and television network affiliations.
Still, the groundswell for how badly a Spence-Crawford fight is needed toward the idea of declaring true supremacy at both welterweight and the sport as a whole on a P4P level has continued to build. Some have even called it this era's equivalent to a Sugar Ray Leonard-Thomas Hearns or Felix Trinidad-Oscar De La Hoya-type showdown.
While Spence firmly has his focused centered upon taking out the 22-year-old Ocampo, he has no problem talking about how eager he would be to see a Crawford fight come to fruition.
"[Crawford] is crafty, he's a switch-hitter, he can box, he can move," Spence told ESPN this week. "For me, I just feel like I'm bigger. I'm stronger. I'm just as sharp. I have a better chin. I hit harder. I'd just basically beat him up."
Showtime fight card
| Fight | Weightclass |
|---|---|
Errol Spence Jr (c) vs. Carlos Ocampo | Welterweight title |
Daniel Moran vs. Moises Flores | Bantamweight |
Javier Fortuna vs. Adrian Granados | Junior welterweight |
Ocampo, who has seen five of his last seven fights go to the scorecards, is confident for the biggest challenge of his career.
"He can try to come and knock me out, but this is my dream," Ocampo said. "This is what I've trained my whole life for and i'm not going to let this chance pass me by. I'm going to use my height, distance and jab throughout the fight. The counter will be important for me. I'm going to look to catch him so he better be ready.
"I'm going to leave everything in the ring. I'm going to show what I have and give everyone a great performance from start to finish."
Prediction
Spence is so technically proficient, powerful and mentally tough that it would be difficult to favor anyone in the world against him, let alone an unknown like Ocampo, who hasn't remotely faced an opponent close to this level.
If Spence had any hole in his game, it might be possible to sketch out an unlikely path to an upset for Ocampo. But he doesn't. Spence has put in plenty of sparring with junior middleweight titleholder Jermell Charlo inside trainer Derrick James' camp and appears poised and ready to continue his march toward the top of the sport.
Spence, who captured his title with a brilliant stoppage of a game Kell Brook in 2017, was so dominant against Peterson earlier this year that one can only expect the worst for Ocampo.
Pick: Spence via fourth-round KO.
