Luke Campbell - Tough Guy

Sub Lead29-Sep-17by John J. Raspanti

By John J. Raspanti

Cool Hand Luke Campbell

“Cool Hand” Luke Campbell looks more like a Boy Scout than a professional pugilist. He’s tall, with a lanky build, and the haircut of a 10-year-old. He smiles a lot—and is polite as hell. But there’s a dark side lurking inside of Campbell.

Last weekend against the more gifted lightweight champion Jorge Linares, Campbell had to dig deep. In the second round, he found himself on the seat of his pants, courtesy of a perfect right hand. He didn’t appear hurt. Campbell was cool and ready to go. Readier than Linares expected or anticipated.

Campbell got up and battled—using creative ways to counter Linares speed. By the middle rounds, the skillful southpaw from Hull, Eng. was back in the fight. So much so that Linares corner was beginning to worry.

Maybe this shouldn’t have surprised anybody. Campbell captured gold medals at the 2008 European Championships and four years later at the Olympics.

He turned pro in 2013. He was 26. Time was of the essence. His team kept him busy. Four fights a year until three years later, when his output dropped to three. Campbell lost his fight to Yvan Mendy, but rebounded to knockout Gary Sykes four months later.

Campbell stopped local favorite Derry Matthews in four, but his biggest match up to that point was an encounter with former lightweight titleholder Darleys Perez on the undercard of the Joshua – Klitschko fight. Campbell was silky smooth. He stopped Perez in nine, earning a shot at Linares. Was he ready? Some thought he didn’t deserve to fight the champion, but Campbell proved them wrong.

The match against Linares was tight through 10 rounds. Campbell was using his jab effectively, but was eating far too many right hands. He fought back, clocking Linares with shots to the body.

The scoring was indicative of how close the bout was. Two judges tabbed Linares the winner, by scores of 115-112 and 114-113, while the third judge had it 115-113 for Campbell.

Cool Hand Luke Campbell

Campbell thought he did enough to win.

“No one can ever doubt my hard work,” Campbell said. “I felt I outclassed him. I thought I won the fight. He’s a great champion, but I didn’t think he was landing any shots whatsoever, and I was catching him with all the clean shots."

Linares had a different opinion.

"A lot of people saw the fight a lot closer than it was because in the last couple of rounds, he was a lot more aggressive and came forward a lot more," Linares said. "When I first started off, I felt very fast. The only thing he had over me was that he was a very technical fighter. He was very tall and had long arms. I had to adjust to his style throughout the fight."

Campbell knew that the knockdown was key. He had to fight back.

"No one can ever doubt my heart," Campbell said. "I got off to a rocky start. He hit me with a nice clean shot in the second round. Cut me on the eye, but I wasn’t dazed or anything like that. From then, I had double vision in one eye for the rest of the fight.”

Campbell left the ring with a deep cut under his right eye and bruising. He didn’t look boyish anymore. He looked like a fighter, which is exactly what he is.