By Dan Ambrose: IBF welterweight champion Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence Jr. (23-0, 20 KOs) weighed in at one-quarter pound under the welterweight limit at 146.75 pounds on Friday for his title defense against IBF mandatory challenger Carlos Ocampo (22-0, 13 KOs) at The Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas.
Ocampo looked badly drained in weighing in at 146.5 lbs. It’s not surprising that Ocampo looked so drained, as he was very heavy looking at the final press conference. Ocampo was not only taller than Spence, but he looked a lot larger due to his weight. Ocampo looked like he was in the low 170s. Why he chooses to fight at welterweight rather than junior middleweight is unclear.
Gennady Golovkin fights at middleweight and he weighs in the low 170s after he rehydrates for his fights. Ocampo looked to be the same size as Golovkin, and he fights at welterweight. The only thing that I can conclude is he wants to have a size advantage over his opponents. If Ocampo was forced to fight at 154 or 160, he would have to find another way to try and win his fights.
”The task at hand [is how I handle the pressure]. I’ve got a tough opponent prepared to take my title in front of my hometown fans, and I’m not going to let that happen,” Spence said at the weigh-in. ”I won’t let him upset me in front of my hometown fans.”
Spence doesn’t need to worry too much about handling pressure, as he’s got a guy that doesn’t belong fighting for a world title in the first place. Ocampo doesn’t deserve a world title shot. Unlike top fighters like Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia, he’s not done anything to deserve a title shot.
”I’m going to put on a great show and great performance like you always see,” Spence said. “Definitely this has been bigger than I expected. I get a little bit nervous when they say I’m fighting in front of 14,000-plus fans. But I have the support from my home state of Texas and Dallas. I love it,” Spence said.
If Spence can draw 14K fans every time he fights in Texas, then he should be fighting in Texas all the time. That’s where he needs to be fighting for him to draw the fans.
“I’ve been sending messages; I don’t have to send anymore,” Spence said. ”I’m the best welterweight in the division and the most feared welterweight in the division. So they have to send a message to me since I’m the top dog.”
It’s going to require that Spence face a better fighter than Ocampo for him to send a message to the other fighters in the welterweight division. Spence needs to take Terence Crawford and Keith Thurman’s scalps for him to send a message. Beating up Ocampo won’t send any kind of message, and he won’t be able to send a message by defeating Porter or Danny Garcia. Spence needs to push his management to put him in with Crawford as soon as possible. Forget about Thurman. He’s undependable due to his chronic injury problems. It’s doubtful he’ll ever be healthy enough to fight more than once a year.
“I came prepared to give everyone a surprise and tomorrow you will all see it,” Ocampo said.
It would be an incredible shocker if Ocampo were to beat Spence, because he’s never done anything during his career that would suggest that he can beat a fighter like this. This fight is really little more than a tune-up level contest for Spence against a fighter that the International Boxing Federation decided to
rank at No.1 for no rhyme or reason.
Other weights for Saturday’s card:
Danny Roman 121.75 vs. Moises “El Chucky” Flores 123.5
Javier Fortuna 139.75 vs. Adrian Granados 139.75
Yordenis Ugas 158.5 vs. Jonathan Bautista 164.5