Campas Defeats Bravo

Luis Ramon “Yory Boy” Campus (90-10, 72 KOs) dug deep to pull out an exciting 10-round decision over Norberto Bravo (24-14-3, 13 KOs) to win the IBA Continental light middleweight title on Friday night, at the Casino Del Sol, in Tuscon, Arizona. Campas, 36, won most of the early rounds but badly faded in the 2nd half of the fight and was forced to fight hard in the final round to get the decision. Campas, the former IBF light middleweight champion, lost a point for low blow in the 6th round, this after receiving repeated warnings in round four for two additional low blows. In the 8th round, Bravo staggered Campas with a series of right hands. The final judges’ scores were 95-94, 95-94 and 95-94, giving Campas his 90th win of his career. Thew bout also marked the occasion of Campas’ 100th fight.

For his part, Bravo did very little to impress me other than coming forward and taking a lot of shots from Campas. He showed little power, and was mostly limited to ineffectual jabs up until the 8th round when he hurt a tired Campas with a couple of right hands. At that point, Campas looked ready to go if someone had blew some hot air on him, yet Bravo was unable to follow up with anything for the rest of the round. In fact, Campas out-landed Bravo during the round and had him against the ropes as the round ended, all the while staggering from shots thrown by Bravo.