By Allan Fox: Errol Spence Jr. (24-0, 21 KOs) took care of his IBF mandatory Carlos Ocampo (22-1, 13 KOs) on Saturday night in stopping him in the 1st round, and he then immediately called out the winner of the Danny Garcia vs. Shawn Porter fight. This is obviously a fight that Spence has wanted for an awfully long time.
Whether his manager Al Haymon can give him that fight is uncertain. Spence wanting to fight those guys doesn’t mean it’s going to happen unfortunately.
Spence knocked Ocampo out with a left hand to the body tonight in a fight televised on Showtime Championship Boxing at The Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas. Spence says he was disappointed with the way it ended so quickly, because he wanted to punish Ocampo more before he ultimately stopped him. By getting him out in the 1st round, Spence was unable to inflict much punishment on him before he collapsed.
“I want to fight the best,” Spence said after the fight. “Danny Garcia and Shawn Porter are fighting each other (for the WBC title) and I definitely want to make that a unifying fight. We both have the same management, we both fight on SHOWTIME. Why not make that happen? I definitely want that fight whenever it’s available,” Spence said.
Porter and Garcia want to fight Keith Thurman, not Spence. They likely feel they stand a better chance against Thurman.
It’s more likely that Spence will wind up defending his title against one of the contenders in the IBF’s rankings instead of facing Garcia or Porter in a unification fight. There’s nothing wrong with Spence defending against another contender as long as it’s someone more talented than Ocampo. Tonight was an embarrassment because Ocampo was not worthy of being a mandatory challenger. He was just a young kid, who the International Boxing Federation threw in the position before he was ready. There’s a reason why boxing promoters take their time in moving up their fighters. They want them to be ready when they do eventually fight for a world title. The IBF did Ocampo no favors by having him fight for a world title against Spence.
Spence, 28, might eventually get a shot at the WBC champion, but I suspect that it won’t happen next. Spence will need to wait a little while longer before he eventually gets to fight for the WBC title. The same goes for Spence fighting WBA champion Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman and WBO champion Terence Crawford. Those fights are going to happen in time, but not now.
