Watch: Luke Campbell vs. Derry Mathews official weights

By Boxing News - 10/14/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: #6 WBC lightweight contender Luke Campbell (14-1, 11 KOs) weighed in at 134 ¼ pounds for his defense of his World Boxing Council Silver strap against former world title challenger Derry Mathews (38-10-2, 20 KOs) on Saturday night at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England.

The Campbell vs. Mathews fight is the chief support on the Tony Bellew vs. BJ Flores card. Campbell-Mathews may overshadow the main event. We’ll have to see, but I have a feeling we’re going to see more action in the Campbell vs. Mathews fight than we can ever hope to view in the Bellew-Flores fight.

The stare down was uneventful between Campbell and Mathews. They both looked at each other without emotion and without words. Mathews turned away first, as if he wasn’t into the mood to go through the motions of playing mind games. At 33, Mathews realizes that it’s useless to try and intimidate an opponent. If you don’t have the talent to back it up inside the ring on the night, then it’s a waste of time to try and get a mental edge by staring at your opponents.

The 5’9” Campbell, 29, looked a lot bigger than the 5’8 ½” Mathews in terms of their frames when the two fighters were in the face off. However, Campbell isn’t a puncher, and he’s already been exposed as having a fragile chin in his fights against Yvan Mendy and Argenis Mendez. Both guys knocked Campbell down. Mendy beat Campbell. Mendez probably would have as well if he didn’t stop throwing punches after dropping him in round two. Mendez went into shutdown for the remainder of the fight and didn’t throw punches. It was lucky for Campbell, because if Mendez had kept nailing him with shots, the fight would have been over quickly. I don’t see Campbell going anywhere in the division.

Yeah, Campbell will get title shots every now and then, as he’s well connected with Eddie Hearn being his promoter, but you’ve got have good punch resistance to win a world title and hold onto the belt. Even if your promoter is carefully matching you against bottom feeders over and over, you’re eventually going to have to face a puncher. That’s what I see happening with Campbell, but I don’t think he’s going to be able to win a world title.

The 33-year-old Mathews, fresh off a disappointing 12 round unanimous decision loss to World Boxing Organization lightweight champion Terry Flanagan last March, weighed in at 135 ½ pounds. Mathews lost to Flanagan by the scores of 116-112, 117-111 and 117-111. I thought the 116-112 was the fairest score of the bunch. I rate Flanagan as a better fighter than Campbell, so it should be interesting to see how the Campbell-Mathews fight goes. I think it’s a match that could go either way. I don’t see the 29-year-old Campbell as having the chin to take Mathews’ big power shots all night long.

Campbell won a gold medal in the 2012 Olympics, but that’s a different sports. It’s way different from pro boxing. Olympics is game of tapping your opponents over and over with the white portion of the gloves. It’s not even boxing in my opinion. Campbell winning a gold medal is meaningless, because he’s not looked like a world beater since turning pro. Campbell is a fringe level fighter with a chin problem in my view.

Mathews might expose Campbell in the same way Mendy did last year in beating him by a 12 round decision or maybe even knocking him out. The scoring for that fight was a joke. The judges scored it as a 12 round split decision in favor or Mendy. I saw the fight and it was a CLEAR 12 round unanimous decision. How one judge, John Keane, could score the fight in Campbell’s favor by a 15-113 score is beyond me? I think it was a clear decision win for Mendy.

Campbell has won his last two fights since his loss to Mendy in beating Gary Sykes and Argenis Mendez. Those are not relevant fighters. Hearn talked up the Campbell-Mendez fight, as if Campbell was proving something by fighting him, but that was basically another fight for him against a second tier fighter. Mendez had lost two out of his last four fights coming into the fight against Campbell. One of those losses was a brutal 5th round knockout loss to Robert Easter Jr. It wasn’t even a fight. Easter Jr. used Mendez like a punching bag until the fight was mercifully halted in the 5th. I’d hate to see what Easter Jr. would do to Campbell. I think it would be just as bad. There are levels in boxing, and I just don’t see Campbell as having the chin, power or the talent to occupy the upper levels. You can count on Campbell to beat the domestic level fighters, and he might even beat Mathews tonight, but he’s going to stub his toe when he gets in there with a world class contender or champion. I’m just saying.

Prediction

As much as I’d like to go with the younger fighter in Campbell, I can’t. His chin is too fragile to hold up to the pounding that he’s going to be receiving on Saturday night by Mathews. There are fighters that just aren’t meant for the pro game. I think Campbell is one of those guys. He was perfect for the amateurs, because the fights are short, power isn’t important, and the taller fighters like Campbell tend to do well. But in the pro ranks, you need a chin, you need power, and you’ve got to be able to brawl. Campbell comes up short in all of those areas. As such, I see Mathews knocking Campbell out in the 9th round on Saturday. I think Mathews will set a fast pace, take Campbell into the deeper rounds, and then drown him. Campbell will try his best, but he’ll be too tired and punch drunk by the 9th round to muster up much offense. Mathews obviously knows that Campbell has a chin problem, so he’ll be swinging for the fences with head shots all night long. That gives a huge advantage in this fight, because he won’t waste time throwing to the body.

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