By Ian S Palmer
Unbeaten Interim WBC Junior Middleweight Champion Sebastian Fundora of West Palm Beach, Florida takes on Carlos Ocampo of Mexico this Saturday, October 8th. The 12-rounder from Carson, California can be seen live in America on Showtime while fans in Canada can catch it on TSN 4. Fundora won the interim belt the last time out when he got up from the canvas in the seventh round to stop Erickson Lubin in the ninth in a slugfest. Ocampo was last in the ring in June when he stopped Vicente Rodriguez in 126 seconds.
The 24-year-old Fundora is a bit of a freak of nature as the ‘Towering Inferno’ stands just over 6-feet-5-inches tall with an 80-inch reach. This gives the southpaw a seven-inch height advantage over Ocampo as well as a seven-inch edge in reach. He climbs into the ring with a near-perfect record of 19-0-1 with 13 Kos and has boxed 97 rounds since making his pro debut in 2016 following an amateur career.
Fundora also has better-than average power to go along with a solid chin as his current knockout ratio stands at 65 per cent. His lone draw was a 10-round affair with Jamontay Clark in August, 2019 in a shot at the vacant WBC Youth Welterweight Title. So far he’s beaten the likes of Lubin, Donnie Marshall, Nathaniel Gallimore, Habib Ahmed, Jorge Cota and Garcia as a pro.
Ocampo is 26 years old and owns an impressive record of 34-1 with 22 Ko’s to his name. He turned pro back in 2012 and has 175 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. He stands just over 5-feet-10 inches tall with a 73-inch reach and as mentioned, gives up quite a bit in size to Fundora.
Ocampo has a pretty good chin even though his lone defeat came by stoppage to Errol Spence Jr in a shot at the IBF Welterweight Title in 2018 as he was caught cold in the first round. He also possesses better-than-average power with a current knockout ratio of 63 per cent and has stopped eight of his last 10 opponents.
The biggest wins of Ocampo’s career have come against Jorge Paez Jr., Johnny Navarrete, Charlie Navarro, Adrian Perez and Daniel Echeverria. He won the vacant WBC Latino Super Welterweight title in January when he stopped Omir Rodriguez in the first round and added the vacant WBC Continental Americas Super Welterweight Crown in March by stopping Mikael Zewski in the ninth round.
Prediction…
Fundora stepped up in class the last time out and passed the test by beating Erickson Lubin while Ocampo will be fighting for the fourth time this year. Even though Fundora’s as tall as a heavyweight he usually doesn’t use his size to his advantage as he likes to fight on the inside and go toe-to-toe. This results in excitement for the fans but he absorbed a lot of punches from Lubin and Sergio Garcia in his last two contests. He’d be advised to use his huge reach and height advantages against Ocampo but it’s simply not his style. Fundora has a solid chin and tons of stamina an I’m expecting him to beat Ocampo this weekend in another fan-friendly fight.
