Brandun Lee: I can’t wait to show the world who I am
Brandun Lee will look to build on last year’s momentum when he faces Zachary Ochoa at the AT&T Arena, Arlington, Texas on Saturday.
The power-punching junior welterweight prospect Los Angeles native is supremely confident that he can use his vast repertoire of skills to open up his rival.
“The thing he does best is keeping his opponent on the outside and utilizing his jab,” Lee (24-0, 22 knockouts) told The Ring. “Once in a while he’ll throw a sneaky right hand. I feel like Zachary is not going to come forward in this fight, he’s going to go backwards and once again I’m going to have to be the puncher.
“I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging but my [advantages are my] power, speed, my overall talent. I think I’m a better, more complete fighter than him.”
Last year, Lee became the first to knockout the durable trio of Samuel Teah (KO 3), Ezequiel Fernandez (KO 1) and Juan Heraldez (KO 7).
It wasn’t as much that he won, it was how he won that helped garner him the prestigious Ring Magazine “Prospect of the Year.”
“That meant the world because my name will forever be in the history books,” he said proudly. “To my knowledge, I’m the only American-Asian to receive that award. It’s another accomplishment that motivates me to go harder and hopefully I can get the next big award.”
The 22-year-old’s fight will take place on the undercard of welterweight unification between Errol Spence Jr.-Yordenis Ugas.
However, although Lee’s fight isn’t part of the Pay-Per-View broadcast, he is grateful his fight is going to be televised beforehand live on Showtime.
“Money is kind of tight, so I feel like for Showtime to allow these two fights is good,” he explained. “A lot of people might be budgeting their money, due to gas prices etc.
“This is by far the biggest fight card I’ve been under and come April 16, I can’t wait to show the world who Brandun Lee is.”
Lee isn’t content to stop here though. He has bigger targets for the future.
“I hope to fight two more times after this fight, sometime in July and August and then fight one more time at the end of the year,” he said. “Hopefully, I can get one of the top 15 guys in there and finally get the respect I deserve from the fight critics. I’ll dominate a top 15 guy, no problem, and next year start tagging those top 10 guys.”
Lee’s promoter, Cameron Dunkin of D&D Boxing, expects his charge to continue to go from strength to strength.
“Brandun is ready to step up and go into the big fights,” said Dunkin, who is known for guiding the careers of 35 world champions including Kelly Pavlik, Terence Crawford, Mikey Garcia and Nonito Donaire. “I think he’s going to be a star and it’s a march to the title.”
Ochoa turned professional in 2011. The New York born fighter of Puerto Rican decent won his first 16 fights before tasting defeat for the first time against Yves Ulysse Jr. (RTD 7). The 29-year-old bounced back with five wins but lost a close fight last time out against Juan Jose Velasco (SD 10). “Zungry” sports a record of 21-2 with 7 KOs.
Questions and/or comments can be sent to Anson at elraincoat@live.co.uk and you can follow him on Twitter@AnsonWainwright
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