Artur Beterbiev vs. Gabriel Campillo on April 4th in Quebec

By Boxing News - 02/13/2015 - Comments

beterbiev67By Dan Ambrose: Undefeated #11 WBA, #15 WBO light heavyweight contender Artur Beterbiev (7-0, 7 KOs) will be facing former WBa 175lb champion Gabriel Campillo (25-6-1, 12 KOs) on April 4th on the Adonis Stevenson card in Quebec, Canada, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.

This is a decent test for the 30-year-old Beterbiev, a Russian Olympian from the 2012 Olympics. However, this isn’t as big a deal as some boxing fans might think it is because Campillo is now 36-years-old and not the fighter he was back in 2009 when he briefly held the WBA title before losing it to Beibut Shumenov by a very controversial decision in 2010.

”[It’s a] very interesting fight. Have given Beterbiev credit also for taking a fight like that in his 8th bout,” Rafael said during Friday’s chat session on ESPN.com.

I don’t know if you can give Beterbiev a great deal of credit, because he is after all 30-years-old and has Olympic experience. If he were in his early 20s, then you could give him a lot more credit than you can give him now. But he’s 30, and he’s facing a guy that was beaten by Tavoris Cloud in by a 2012 by a 12 round split decision. Cloud is the same guy that Beterbiev knocked out in just two rounds last September.

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That’s obviously something that Beterbiev’s promoter Yvon Michel had to have been thinking about when he took the fight. Campillo was knocked out twice in 2013 by Andrzej Fonfara and Sergey Kovalev.

Beterbiev had a chance to face #2 WBC, #6 WBO, #7 IBF Isaac Chilemba for his April 4th fight, but for some reason Beterbiev and his promoter chose not to take that fight. It would have been a better match-up than the Campillo fight, because Chilemba is still young and highly ranked.

Beterbiev showed that he still has much to learn in the pro game in his last fight against Jeff Page Jr last December. Page knocked Beterbiev down in the 1st round of the fight with a big right hand.

Beterbiev came back in the 2nd round to drop Beterbiev down twice in the process of scoring a 2nd round knockout, but the damage was done. Page Jr exposed Beterbiev as a fighter who doesn’t set up his attacks with a jab and who doesn’t use any head movement.

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Campillo has won his last three fights since his loss to Fonfara in 2013. He’s beaten Ricky Dennis Pow, Thomas Williams Jr and Mirzet Bajrektarevic.

If Beterbiev can’t beat Campillo, then it’s a pretty good sign that he’s not going to go anywhere in the light heavyweight division. Beterbiev would then be better off moving up to cruiserweight and seeing if he can make something happen in that weight class, because his lack of hand speed and defense will be a likely be a constant problem for him in the future.

The light heavyweight division is too good for guys that still don’t know the basics at this point in their career after having spent too much time in the amateur ranks like Beterbiev.



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