Burns faces 2nd tier opponent Ocampo on 12/15

By Boxing News - 11/28/2012 - Comments

Image: Burns faces 2nd tier opponent Ocampo on 12/15By Scott Gilfoid: While unbeaten American talent Adrien Broner (25-0, 21 KO’s) is blowing through talented fighters like former WBC lightweight champion Antonio DeMarco and Jason Litzau, WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (35-2, 10 KO’s) will be defending his World Boxing Organization strap against 2nd tier fighter Jose Ocampo (17-5-1, 12 KO’s) on December 15th at the ExCel Arena, Dockland, in London, United Kingdom.

This is another disappointing match-up for Burns, who for some reason isn’t taking on the kinds of fighters that he should be during his career in my view. Ocampo, 23, isn’t even ranked in the top 15 by of the sanctioning bodies at lightweight, and I’m wondering how and why the WBO is sanctioning this fight as a title defense for Burns. It reminds me a heck of a lot of the WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly in his recent title defense against a 2nd tier fighter Shawn Hawk.

The WBO let that count as a title defense for Cleverly despite the fact that Hawk wasn’t a top 15 contender, and the fight turned out to be dreadfully one-sided as one would expect. Now we’ve got Burns doing it with Ocampo. It’s pretty saw matchmaking. At this point I can see Burns holding onto his title well into old age if the WBO is going to be letting him defend his strap against 2nd tier opposition.

Ocampo replaces British fringe contender Liam Walsh, who had to pull out of the fight after suffering an injury in an automobile accident. Burns was taking heat from boxing fans for taking on Walsh, but that fight seems great compared to the opponent now picked out for Burns. I didn’t think they could outdo that fight but here we are with the 2nd tier Ocampo picked out for Burns.

Not much to say about Ocampo other than the fact that he’s struggled against mediocre opposition. He was beaten by Allan Tanado (8-0) and Rey Labao recently. And the records for Ocampo’s last two opponents are as follows: 7-9-1 and 10-17. That’s awful.

I think Adrien Broner shouldn’t waste his time fighting Burns. If this is the kind of opposition that Burns is going to be fighting then it’s not worth it for Broner to waste one fight of his career against this guy. Let Burns fight the Walshs, Ocampos, and Nicky Cooks of boxing, while Broner takes on the talented fighters like DeMarco. I see the fighters occupying different positions in terms of talent and opposition.

I don’t know why but Burns just hasn’t been matched against the types of opponents that would give boxing fans an idea of how good – or how not so good – he is. Putting him in with already exposed fighters like Michael Katsidis and Kevin Mitchell has done Burns no favors in view, as there’s no gain that Burns got from those wins because these types of fighters have already been beaten by others.



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