By Scott Gilfoid: WBC Silver lightweight champion Luke Campbell (16-1, 13 KOs) made easy work of little known 2nd tier fighter Jairo Lopez (21-7-, 14 KOs), stopping him in the 2nd round on Saturday night in a mismatch at the Ice Arena in Hull, UK. Campbell knocked down Lopez twice in the fight in dropping him once in the 1st and a final time in round 2.
The end of the horrible mismatch came in round 2 after the 29-year-old Campbell nailed Lopez with a left uppercut to the head. A badly hurt Lopez got to his feet, but he was out of it to be allowed to continue fighting. Lopez was staggering when referee John David Lewis halted the fight.
Lopez was coming forward looking like a drunk with the way he was plodding and reaching with his shots. In the case of the knockout blow in the 2nd round, Lopez walked into a left uppercut from Campbell. Lopez was so slow and predictable a blind man could have knocked him out. It looked really bad how flawed Lopez was. I’m just wondering where Campbell’s promoter Eddie Hearn found Lopez. This was a really poor match. If the idea is to prepare Campbell for a title shot against Mikey Garcia, I don’t understand this kind of soft match—making for Campbell.
In round 1, Campbell hurt Lopez with a left to the head. Campbell then flurried on the hurt Lopez until throwing him on the canvas with a look of annoyance. For some reason, the referee scored as a knockdown. It was clearly a wrestling throw down move. I guess it didn’t matter that Campbell threw Lopez down rather than knocking him down, but when you see a fight, you want to have it scored it scored correctly without blown calls by a referee. Unless throwing your opponent is a new way of knocking them down, Campbell got away with a bogus knockdown in the 1st round against Lopez.
Campbell’s promoter Eddie Hearn said after the fight, “We want a rematch with Yvan Mendy. I think Mendy is the perfect preparation for a world title fight.”
Campbell was soundly beaten by Mendy by a 12 round split decision in December 2015. The scoring was a joke in my opinion. Mendy clearly won that fight. The judge that scored it for Campbell must have been watching a different fight, because it was a one-sided affair.
“I definitely want a rematch,” said Campbell about Mendy. “It’ll never happen again. He’s going to suffer for that.”
Well, if Campbell fights Mendy again, I think he can forget about fighting for a world title, because he’ll lose that fight. Mendy has Campbell’s number due to him being almost as tall and a better puncher.
Tonight’s fight between Campbell and Lopez was a horrible match-up. The card thus far is a dreadful one with Hearn putting B-side guys with no chance in with his fighters. This is bad boxing. This undercard is a lot of soft match-making for Hearn’s fighters.
Even if Campbell does get a world title shot against WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia, he’s going to be BADLY out of his element. Mikey is way too good for the stork-like Campbell. I see that fight ending with Mikey getting an easy knockout. Campbell is a decent fringe level contender, but not the cream of the crop at lightweight. I see Dejan Zlaticanin as far too good for him, as well as a number of other top contenders like Mendy.