Tim Tszyu vs. Carlos Ocampo - Smoke and the bubble

There has been a lot of talk in the short build-up for this fight with Tim Tszyu defending his newly won, Interim WBO junior middleweight strap, which makes him the No 1 contender to get a crack at the Unified junior middleweight world champion, Jermell Charlo ( 35-1 19 KOS) for all the belts.

All the talk is that Tszyu’s next challenge will be his toughest to date, with words like ‘ firefight’ ‘ rolling the dice facing this tough Mexican’ to being ‘ absolutely crazy’ but if you know, you know, it’s all smoke .

Carlos Ocampo (37 - W35 - 23 KOS) is a tough come forward Mexican who fought for the World title in 2018 against the brilliant boxer, Errol Spence Jnr, losing by knockout, and more recently challenging the 6’5 southpaw, Sebastian Fundora, losing on points.

Ocampo is a contender ranked somewhere in the top 20 with the WBC, WBA, and IBF. He’s ranked number 11 with the WBO. and 17 with the IBO.

In their October 2022 fight, Fundora had Ocampo hurt but couldn’t finish him off and he allowed Ocampo to get back into the fight and allow him to throw wild punches on the inside, before waking up, to then out box Ocampo and cruise through the final rounds.

In March this year, the Mexican came back, beating Mauricio Gutierrez Castor by TKO.

Tszyu’s team has handpicked Ocampo as he is a Mexican and he will come to fight. He has heart and likes to attack on the inside. He is a limited fighter and he is very easy to hit.

Ocampo is wide open for the right hook and the uppercut and Tszyu will find the target all night long.

Tszyu’s team has done a very good job thus far by building their fighter up waiting for their opportunity and the chance at fighting the American ‘Iron Man’ Jermell Charlo but it’s all starting to get old now. Tszyu needs to start fighting better opponents if he really wants to mix it with Charlo. The Houston Native, Charlo (who is currently back training with long-time coach Ronnie Shields) will be knocking guys like Harrison and Ocampo spark out in sparring. I’ve been in his previous training camp and I’ve seen him do it.

For me, this fight with Ocampo is all smoke, and it’s difficult to get a true account of where Tszyu is because blasting lesser opponents out might be confidence-building for him and makes for good TV in Australia but they are in their own bubble and while very lucrative, and successful as a business, after 22 fights, there are better match ups out there and fights that can and should be made.

Across the other side of the world in the UK, and America, really no one knows who Tim Tszyu is. On my travels to the fights, I promote and talk about Australian fighters at every turn so I know firsthand.

When I mentioned Tszyu’s stoppage win over Tony Harrison to a group of fighters at the famed ‘ Wild Card Gym’ in LA over Tony Harrison, there was laughter and chants of ‘ that mutherfucker’ is over. He’s long done. ‘

Tszyu’s latest picking is not quite done but he has been brought here as cannon fodder and Tszyu will walk through him and look good doing it.

Tszyu TKO 7th

Gary Todd has been involved in the sport of boxing for over 30 years. He is an acclaimed international best selling author with his books on boxing’s world champions. Go to garytodd.org to Check out his latest book, “Annie’s Boy”