Cam O’Connell’s comeback is officially on.
The Red Deer boxer has signed on to fight Mario Perez as the main event for KO Boxing Promotion’s Adrenaline Rush at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton on June 12.
O’Connell (6-0-1, 5 KOs) will be fighting Mexico’s Mario Perez (16-6-4, 9 KOs), who now trains out of Edmonton.
Venezuela’s Samuel Vargas (20-2-1, 10 KOs) and Mexico’s Cesar Chavez (25-8-0, 13 KOs) will be the semi-main event.
It is a dream situation for O’Connell, 26, after spending nine months in the Bowden Institute on a drug trafficking conviction. His last fight was a first-round knock out of Reese Chapman on March 1, 2014.
“It’s amazing, I didn’t think that could happen. With how long I was gone, I didn’t think they would just throw me on the main event,” he said. “It’s humbling, it makes me feel real good. I thought about this moment for nine months. To make it as big as possible just makes it that much more important to me.”
O’Connell has had difficulty finding opponents willing to take him on due to his preceeding reputation for his punching power and aggressiveness in the ring, including having a few opponents pull out at the last minute.
The Red Deer fighter has made a numebr of concessions just to get this fight against a veteran fighter with a good reputation. For one, the lightweights will be fighting at a catch weight of 135 pounds — O’Connell is walking around at 148 pounds — and they are scheduled for an eight-round fight, the longest of O’Connell’s career.
“I kept telling my promoter, I want a fight where people see what I have to offer, not just to knock people out anymore,” he said. “(Perez is) coming to fight and he’s coming to win too. He’s already hard in training, he’s not just coming for a paycheque.
“He’s got a lot of stipulations he’s putting on me — it feels a little like the Manny Pacquiao/Mayweather fight, but I’ll do anything to get a good fight right now.”
Even without any concessions, O’Connell says he will have a tough fight on his hands with Perez, 30.
Perez is 2-1-2 in his last five fights and was knocked out on June 16, 2014, by Dierry Jean (25-1-0), one of Canada’s top boxers.
“He’ll go the distance, he’s a tough competitor ... I call him a survivor — he’s a counter puncher who has some power but he’s not super aggressive,” said O’Connell. “He’s a boxer not a fighter. Our game plan is to trap him and teach him how to fight in the corner.”
This is the first step back in the ring for O’Connell who is trying to prove to he has changed since a mistake he made six years ago as a 19-year-old — driving a pickup truck loaded with cocaine from Vancouver to Calgary — landed him in trouble with the law. Since then he has dedicated his life to being a positive influence for local youths.
As an amateur, he was a world champion, a two-time Canadian champion, a junior Olympic bronze medallist and a 12-time provincial champion with a 101-35 record.
His goal is to become something his hometown can be proud of, and says he has received a lot of support since his release from Bowden on March 31.
“All of the support in the community is helping me to train for this fight, it is motivating me,” said a thankful O’Connell. “It is unbeleiveable the amount of support I’ve had.”
The fight will also be as much of a home ring advantage as possible for O’Connell, who grew up in Red Deer and has already had five of his seven professional fights at the Shaw Conference Centre.
“I love fighting for my home crowd, I can hear people in the crowd who I can distinguish their voices,” he said. “It motivates me to know I have that much backing ... to train harder to to do that much better for my fans.”