Watch Out! Mr. Gatekeeper, Cameron Krael, Mysterious Vegas Welterweight of Upsets
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
*Photo Credit: Mayweather Promotions
Beware! Watch out! At initial first glance, ordinary-looking Cameron Krael, a 35 pro bout veteran welterweight out of Las Vegas, Nevada, originally out of Honolulu, Hawaii, holds a seemingly unimpressive, 17-15-3 record with only four knockouts. Since 2011, Cameron, the gatekeeper of the 147 pounds division, who is also called ‘suave’, has ruined the careers of a number of unbeaten prospects, and befuddled the careers of 13 promising fighters with solid winning records. This fighter is dangerous and ferocious once the bell rings.
Krael’s professional record is completely confusing, perplexing and deceptive. He has considerable boxing ability, power, and technical skill, and maybe evolving into a lower weight Mike Weaver and Dick Tiger, overcoming a rough start to realizing his prime late at age 26 by virtue of his considerable ring experience. Cameron has continued to evolve.
Guadalupe Salcido, Luis Adrian Bello, Maurice Lee, and Manuel Damairias Lopez are among the unbeaten fighter whose career Krael has ruined by upsetting them. Krael has been taken out only once, and has done a dangerous battle with the likes of Maurice Hooker, Jamal James, Luis Cruz, Roberto Arriaza, Jose Felix Quezada, Egidijus Kavaliauskas, Eric Hunter, Keith Hunter, Alex Martin, Levan Ghvanichava, and Gabriel DeLuc.
Other significant upsets, with unpredictable outcomes ranging from first-round stoppages to 10 round majority decisions, by Krael include victories over Wilberth Lopez, Demond Brock, Moris Rodriguez, Josh Torres, Todd Manuel, Genaro Mendez, Geg Jackson, Gato Takahashi, Michael Ogundo and Angel Hernandez.
More recently, Cameron has scoring two major upsets: a 10 rounds decision upset in Las Vegas over 14-1 Jose Miguel Borriego in September 2018; and on February 13, 2020, in Las Vegas, an eight-round split decision upset which derailed 17-3 Ravshan Hudayazarov.
While not a threat to the major players of the welterweight division, the major players of the welterweight division are nonetheless now avoiding Krael, to avoid the dangerous risk a hot and cold gatekeeper presents on any given day. Still, another major upset is probably still coming in Krael’s future. He continues to get lucky, and will receive more challenging opportunities in the future at 147 pounds by virtue of his nice wins when he finds them.
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