By Keith Idec

Before January 23, Errol Spence Jr. literally didn’t know Carlos Ocampo existed.

It wasn’t until the IBF ordered its welterweight champion to make a mandatory title defense against the Mexican contender that Spence became aware of Ocampo.

The young, unknown challenger has never fought outside of Mexico, or on television in the United States, and Spence doesn’t pay any attention to rankings.

“I didn’t know who he was, to tell you the truth,” Spence said on a conference call Tuesday. “I didn’t know who he was and I don’t really look at the rankings, so I think like two days after my fight the IBF had ordered me to fight my mandatory. Then they said it was Carlos Ocampo.

“My original thought was just, I mean, let’s do it. I’d rather get it out the way now, so it’s not a bump in the road later on, when I’m trying to get bigger and better fights. So I’d rather get my mandatory out the way right now.”

The IBF ordered a Spence-Ocampo match three days after a dominant Spence stopped Lamont Peterson just as the eighth round began January 20 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The 22-year-old Ocampo (22-0, 13 KOs) is ranked No. 3 by the IBF and at that time was its leading available contender because the top two spots in its 147-pound rankings were vacant. Ocampo isn’t rated in the top 15 by the WBA, WBC, WBO or IBO.

The 28-year-old Spence (23-0, 20 KOs), a powerful southpaw from DeSoto, Texas, doesn’t consider Ocampo’s anonymity and low level of opposition indications of whether Ocampo can fight.

“I never heard of him before that, but that doesn’t mean nothing,” Spence said. “There’s a lot of fighters that pop up out of the blue, that you never heard of. They just don’t have the management or the promotion team or the spotlight, you know, to be seen. That’s the ones you’ve gotta watch out for.”

Ocampo will attempt to ruin the heavily favored Spence’s homecoming Saturday night in Frisco, Texas. A capacity crowd of roughly 15,000 is expected to attend the card headlined by Spence-Ocampo at Ford Center at The Star, the Dallas Cowboys’ training facility (Showtime; 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT).

“I found tapes on him,” Spence said. “It’s nothing that you just see that’s special, but the guy comes to fight. He’s young, he’s undefeated and he’s fighting for a world title. Of course, yes, all of his fights was in Mexico, but Mexican fighters are known to be tough, they’re known to be durable and they’re known to come to fight. So that’s what I’m expecting out of him, to give it his all come the fight and try to take my belt from me in my hometown.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.