When Red Deer boxer Cam O’Connell steps into the ring Friday night at the Edmonton Shaw Conference Centre, he’ll be looking at a relatively unknown opponent.
Unknown, at least, to him and his handlers.
“We know very little about him in regards to how much we should know,” O’Connell said Wednesday, in reference to Mexican fighter Randy Lozano. “We know he’s right-handed, that he’s a Mexican and that he’s got some names under his belt.”
In other words, Lozano, 10-6-2, has a resumé that doesn’t include a long list of stiffs. In his last outing, Lozano stopped 61-bout veteran and former world title challenger, Cecilio Santos, in under three rounds, and he also handed Oscar Gutierrez (11-1-0 with eight KOS) his only loss, stopping the formerly undefeated prospect in the third round.
Still, the undefeated O’Connell, with six wins and a draw on his professional slate, will enter the lightweight bout with a quiet confidence due to his punching power and his physical and mental well-being following a stringent six weeks of training. He received some high-end assistance in the gym, training with Arash Usmanee, who has been ranked as high as 10th in the IBF junior lightweight category, Doug Bolianatz, Roman Rzepkowski and Robert Carswell.
“I’m ready to go, I’m feeling strong and healthy and I’m good mentally,” said O’Connell. “The mental game is the whole thing.”
O’Connell last fought on June 12 against Mexican Mario Perez and scored a unanimous eight-round decision. He controlled the last four rounds of the bout, also at the Shaw Conference Centre, and scored a late eight-second knockdown of the 27-fight veteran.
Now, three months later, he’s ready to roll again, although he was hoping Friday’s fight would be against a countryman and for a Canadian belt. That was the plan, but he had no takers.
“We tried getting a fight for a Canadian title on Friday, but nobody in Canada will fight us,” said O’Connell, who is growing frustrated with his inability to line up a national championship bout.
“So we might just bypass it and fight for the North American title in either December or the beginning of March.”
O’Connell will be back in the ring next month against an opponent he prefers not to know, at least for now.
“I have another fight lined up for Oct. 16,” he said. “I have the contract but I told myself I’m not going to read it until after this fight is over. I’m just taking it one fight at a time.”