Luke Campbell Has Matured But Can He Beat Jorge Linares?

Luke Campbell Has Matured But Can He Beat Jorge Linares?
16:46, 22 Sep 2017

There isn’t too much bite between the WBA lightweight opponents, Luke Campbell and Jorge Linares, ahead of Saturday night’s world title bout in Inglewood, California.  There doesn’t need to be; there is so much awaiting in the ring, that they don’t need to squander their energy.

The indoor Forum venue, where Gennady Golovkin devoured Dominic Wade in April 2016, is unlikely to see a similar mismatch on Saturday.  If Campbell is the underdog, he is not overtly so, and for all the talk that he believes he can beat the Venezuelan, it is underpinned by an acknowledgement of what he is up against.

The 29-year-old from Hull, a renowned amateur fighter who won Gold at the 2012 Olympics in London, is smartly focusing on talk of his own game ahead of the fight.

“I want these big fights, I want to fight the best. This is why I’m in boxing and decided to be a pro boxer.  I wanted to see how far I could push myself, see what my limitations were, to see what I can achieve.”

If Campbell wants to fight the best, he is in good company with Linares, and as well as the WBO title, he hopes to secure the World Boxing Council Diamond and Ring Magazine world lightweight titles.  And that is why he is right to focus on his own game.  

When he was close to facing Linares in 2015, he came up against French fighter Yvan Mendy in a WBC international title fight.  In what was an eliminator to face tomorrow’s opponent, he was found wanting.  

Despite Campbell’s height and range, Mendy had him on the back foot from an early stage.  Mendy was dominant, landing shots at will and the most telling story of the night was in the men’s respective faces; Mendy unblemished, Campbell bruised and swollen.  Even some hometown influenced judge scoring, wasn’t enough to save him.

But, Campbell has learnt.  When he faced Gary Sykes three months later, he responded with a display that was wholly dominant and imbued with technical excellence.

Since then he has gone on to secure the vacant WBC Silver Lightweight title as well as the Commonwealth title in the same weight division.

And when Linares says that Campbell is looking “hungry”, he’s right.  But Campbell is not the only one to have learnt in defeat.  

Linares let a shot at the vacant WBC world lightweight tile, slip in 2011; an 11th round total knock out by Mexican southpaw Antonio De Marco.  Five months later he made a comeback against another Mexican fighter, Sergio Thompson.  The same result.  In fact he only lasted two rounds on that occasion.

But since then he has been unstoppable.  Something two of Campbell’s compatriots can confirm.  The WBC title he secured in 2012, he has held to despite the best efforts of Kevin Mitchell and Anthony Crolla – twice.

While he has high-end footwork and an uppercut that can take a lot to recover from, it’s his sincere class and hardened experience that Campbell will have to cater for.

Both men have an abundance of style in their armoury, but the feeling is Campbell will also need to dig very deep if he is to have a realistic chance of winning.

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