By Allan Fox: #7 WBC, #12 WBA, #13 IBF, #13 WBO light heavyweight contender Artur Beterbiev (8-0, 8 KOs) proved that he’s ready for a world title shot today with a fourth round knockout victory over ring veteran Gabriel Campillo (25-7-1, 12 KOs). Beterbiev, 30, knocked Campillo out with a right-left combination in the 4th round that left Campillo flat on his back and seemingly out cold for a moment.
The fight was stopped at 2:22 of the 4th round by referee Marlon Wright on Saturday at the Pepsi Coliseum in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. What’s interesting about the knockout is that Beterbiev had Campillo out on his feet after hurting him with a big right hand to the head in the 4th.
While Campillo was virtually defenseless, Beterbiev hit him with a left hook to the jaw that caused Campillo to sink to the canvas slowly. Beterbiev didn’t put everything he had into the finishing left hook like he could have done, as he appeared to show mercy to Campillo.
While Campillo was slowly sliding to the canvas along the ropes, there was still time for Beterbiev to nail Campillo a final time, but he chose not to. After the fight was stopped, blood poured out of Campillo’s mouth. He looked badly hurt. It is unclear what punch from Beterbiev did the damage to Campillo’s mouth, but it could be one of the final two shots that did it.
In the 1st round, Beterbiev hurt Campillo with a hard right hand to the head that staggered him. Beterbiev then flurried on Campillo until he dropped to the canvas. To his credit, Campillo got back to his feet, but he was on shaky for the remainder of the round.
Beterbiev took his time in rounds two and three in nailing Campillo with big shots. Beterbiev wasn’t rushing the job. He looked like he was just looking for the perfect shot each time to inflict the most damage. Instead of flurrying on Campillo like he could have, Beterbiev concentrated on landing hard shots to the head and to the body.
The body shots seemed to take a lot of energy out of Campillo, who didn’t look at all comfortable each time he was hit downstairs. By the 2nd round, Campillo’s nose was turning red from the hard shots he’d been eating. He didn’t look at all good, and he wasn’t throwing enough punches back at Beterbiev to dissuade him from attacking.
Campillo needed to use movement to keep from getting hit, but instead he was directly in front of Beterbiev move of the time. This made things easy for Beterbiev to get his shots off. Campillo was standing straight up most of the time, and this made his head an easy target for Beterbiev to nail him.
With the way that Beterbiev stopped Campillo, a lot of boxing fans feel that Beterbiev is ready to fight for a world title now against either WBC champion Adonis Stevenson or IBF/WBA/WBO champ Sergey Kovalev. Fans feel that Beterbiev is ready for either of those guys. However, Beterbiev wasn’t ready to say afterwards whether he was ready to fight for a title yet. He obviously is leaving it up to his promoters to decide when and who he’ll eventually fight for a title against.
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