By Ian S Palmer
Southpaw Errol Spence Jr. of Long Island, New York will be defending his IBF World Welterweight Title for the second time this Saturday, June 16th when he faces fellow unbeaten fighter Carlos Ocampo of Mexico. The 12-round bout from Frisco, Texas can be seen live in the USA on Showtime while fans in Canada can catch it on TSN 2 at 11pm ET. Spence won the title in May, 2017 when he stopped former champion Kell Brook in England in the 11th round and defended it against Lamont Peterson after seven rounds in January Ocampo last fought in November when he stopped Dario Ferman in seven rounds.
The 28-year-old year-old Spence will enter the ring with a perfect record of 23-0 along with 20 Kos. He stepped up in class when meeting Chris Algieri in April of 2016 and then by meeting Brook and Peterson after previously beating opponents such as Phil Lo Greco, Chris van Heerden, Samuel Vargas and Alejandro Barrera. Spence has boxed 95 rounds since turning pro in 2012, but also has a lot of amateur experience as he competed at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, England.
Spence isn’t that tall as he stands just over 5-feet-9-inches and has a 72-inch reach. He has very good speed and power and enters the fight with a highly-impressive knockout ratio of 87 per cent despite not being regarded as a one-punch knockout artist. However, he’s now won 10 straight fights by way of stoppage. Spence has a fine jab and will be trying to establish it before unleashing his power shots against Ocampo.
Ocampo is just 22 years old and also owns a perfect record as he’s 22-0 with 13 Kos to his name. He turned pro back in 2012 and has 120 rounds under his belt since then. The youngster was a fine amateur who won silver medals at the Mexican National Olympiads in 2009 and 2011. Unfortunately, both his height and reach are unlisted, butt he’s got a solid chin and pretty good power with a current knockout ratio of 59 per cent.
He doesn’t have much in the way of experience against top-notch opponents, but has beaten the likes of Jorge Paez Jr., Johnny Navarrete, Charlie Navarro and Daniel Echeverria. I mentioned he has decent power, but Ocampo has just two stoppages in his last seven bouts and if he doesn’t hit Spence with something solid early on he’s going to have a very hard time keeping the champion off of him. Ocampo’s too young and inexperienced to pull off an upset over Spence, but he’s the mandatory challenger.
Prediction…
This is basically a hometown fight for Spence since he resides in Desoto, Texas and he’s taking on a challenger who’s taking a huge step up in class. Ocampo will need to establish a solid jab and connect with his combinations, but he comes in second place in all skill departments in this bout as well as experience. Spence may want to get a few rounds of work in, but he shouldn’t have much of a problem retaining his title here.
