Spence disappointed with quick ending in Ocampo bout

After his first round destruction of Carlos Ocampo 22-1 (13) at the Ford Centre at The Star in Frisco, Texas on Saturday night, IBF welterweight champion Errol “The Truth” Spence Jr 24-0 (21) has revealed his disappointment with the result.

“I was a little disappointed,” admitted the undefeated Texan, who was making the second defence of the 147-pound title he won from Kell Brook in Sheffield a year ago. “I wanted to give the crowd their money’s worth. I wanted him to sustain a bit and give him some punishment, but the body shot got him and I dropped him.”

The previously unbeaten Mexican held a glossy record but with his best victory coming against Jorge Paez Jr, it was questionable whether he was ready for this type of step up in competition. Still, the expectation was that Ocampo would be rugged enough to stand up to Spence’s assault for a few rounds at least.

“I thought at least it would go until the fourth, fifth round. If he would’ve gotten up, I probably would have carried him,” said the 28-year-old, only half-joking. ‘I didn’t take any punishment, so I can still come back this year so that’s a good thing.”

Spence was genuinely appreciative of the crowd who turned up to watch him fight.

“I remember when I was fighting in front of two thousand fans, a thousand fans, and now I’m packing out arenas,” Spence said. “This is a great moment, I recorded it and I’m definitely going to go back and look at it. Hopefully it all sinks in tomorrow when the adrenalin comes down.”

Southpaw Spence set up the body shot perfectly, knocking down the overmatched Mexican at 2:59 of the opening round. Ocampo failed to beat the count.

“I’ve been doing that since the amateurs, that’s always been my style, to go to the body,” said Spence. “A lot of amateur coaches used to try to stop me going to the body, [they used to tell me] you need to go more to the head, but that’s how I break my opponents down…

“It’s something we’ve always worked on. It’s always worked for me. I might change my name to the Body Snatcher.”

Spence is looking at returning to the ring later this year and has his eye on injured WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman and the winner of Danny Garcia versus Shawn Porter who will be fighting for the vacant WBC welterweight title in August.