By Scott Gilfoid: In a horribly one-sided fight, #15 WBC lightweight fringe contender Luke Campbell (12-0, 10 KOs) stayed unbeaten in defeated #7 IBF, #14 WBC Tommy Coyle (21-3, 10 KOs) by a 10th round stoppage on Saturday night at the Craven Park Stadium, Hull, Yorkshire, United Kingdom. Campbell was really bellyaching to the referee about being roughed up by Coyle.
It looked really bad to see Campbell complaining to the referee. It made him look like a privileged fighter looking to get help from the referee. I’m not sure what Campbell was expecting the referee to do. Did he want him to make it more like an amateur fight? Campbell needs to realize that is the pros. He can’t be crying to the referee each time one of his opponents roughs him up. What was interesting is that Campbell was nailing Coyle with rabbit punches in some of the clinches. Rabbit shots aren’t legal, but Coyle didn’t complain to the referee like Campbell was doing. He kept a stiff upper lip and took the illegal rabbit shots from Campbell without stopping the action to make a major production about it.
Campbell knocked Coyle down four times in the fight. Campbell dropped Coyle once in the 2nd with a left to the body, and then three times in the 10th with a flurry of shots. The official time of the stoppage was 1:41 of the 10th.
Coyle did a good job of roughing Campbell up, and made it really difficult until Campbell hurt him with some body shots around the midpoint of the fight.
“This kid Luke Campbell could be the best in the lightweight division,” Campbell’s promoter Eddie Hearn said after the fight. “In a couple of fights he’ll be ready to challenge for a world title. We’ll be back next summer to challenge for a world title here. I believe Luke Campbell will be world champion. I think next summer it’s inevitable.”
“This man is a special talent,” Coyle said after the fight about Campbell. “I came in the ring very confident. He was too smart. I’m a domestic fighter at best.”
Coyle is a domestic level fighter, and that’s what makes it so sad, because he was able to give Campbell a lot of problems.
Overall, Campbell didn’t look that great despite getting the victory. I mean, if he’d been in there with someone like Terence Crawford, who moved up in weight recently luckily for him, I think Campbell would have been totally schooled. Hearn is going to match Campbell carefully because if he puts him in with WBC lightweight champion Jorge Linares, then I see Campbell losing. I think Darleys Perez and Terry Flanagan would be too good for Campbell as well. He’s too basic, and he was struggling with the fast pace of the fight. He was breathing really hard and not looking good.
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2nd tier junior middleweight Brian Rose (27-3-1, 8 KOs) kept his career alive tonight in beating American journeyman Carson Jones (37-11-3, 27 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision.
The final judges’ scores were 119-111, 116-112, and 117-112. The victory for Rose avenges his 1st round knockout loss to Jones from earlier this year in February.
Rose was cut on the bridge of his nose in the 2nd round, and he was forced to fight with it the remainder of the way.
Jones was wasting a lot of punches in throwing to the body of Rose instead of the head. He was only throwing mostly one or two punches at a time, and not putting a lot of power in his shots. It looked like he was just pushing his shots. There was no explosiveness.
Rose’s promoter Eddie Hearn didn’t have a direction for where he’s going to move Rose for his next fight. But obviously in looking at how mediocre Rose looked tonight, Hearn is going to need to be very careful with him because if he puts him in with anyone halfway decent at 154, he’s going to get beaten. Hearn says he wants to move Rose up to middleweight, which doesn’t sound like a good idea because he can’t punch at all. Perhaps Hearn can match Rose with someone like John Ryder, Matthew Macklin, Adam Etches or Billy Joe Saunders if he loses his fight against Andy Lee. I can’t see Rose beating any of those guys. Knowing Hearn, he’ll likely try and match Rose against the best known of that bunch Macklin, who looks totally shot at this point in his career. I can’t even see Rose beating Macklin. He can still punch and a lot harder than Carson Jones.
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Former two division world champion Ricky Burns (38-5-1, 12 KOs) defeated an over-matched Prince Ofotsu (15-5, 11 KOs) by a 5th round stoppage.
Ofotsu’s trainer threw in the towel during the 5th round due to him not being happy with the way he was fighting. It was pretty bizarre move though because Ofotsu wasn’t hurt and was still trying to fight. However, it was a one-sided fight so you can understand it.
Burns was hurting Ofotsu with body shots in the first four rounds of action. Burns was also doing a number by throwing tons of rabbit shots to the back of Ofotsu’s head. Next to the body shots, the rabbit punches were Burns’ best punches. I’m not sure why the referee didn’t pull Burns aside to read him the riot act about his constant punches to the back of the head, because clearly the shots were hitting Ofotsu over and over again in that area of his head. It looked to me that Burns was aiming his shots there for some reason. It didn’t look sporting at all.
Burns really needs to step it up again because he can’t make a career out of fighting 3rd tier fighters like Ofotsu. I mean, if Burns can’t handle it fighting the top tier fighters than he needs to think about retiring. Before tonight’s fight, Burns had lost 3 out of his last 4 fights. Really, Burns had lost 4 out of his last 5 fights because his 12 round draw against Raymyundo Beltran was a clear loss back in September 2013. Yeah, Burns can beat no hopers like Ofotsu, but I don’t think he can beat the top tier guys any more.
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A very impressive looking unbeaten heavyweight prospect Dillian Whyte (15-0, 12 KOs) used a crushing left hook to destroy Brazilian 1 Irineu Beato Costa Junior (17-5, 15 KOs) by a 1st round knockout.
Whyte, 27, knocked Costa Junior down twice with left hooks in the 1st round. The fight was then halted after the 2nd knockdown. The official stoppage was 2:41 of the 1st.
With this victory, Whyte will now be facing unbeaten Anthony Joshua (13-0, 13 KOs) later this year in a huge grudge match. Whyte previously beat Joshua six years ago in 2009 when the two fighters were in the amateur ranks.
“The deal is done. Anthony Joshua will be fighting Dillian Whyte later this year,” Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn said after the fight.
“We’re just getting started. You’ve not seen nothing yet,” said Johnathon Banks, the trainer for Whyte.
“I was hoping to go a few more rounds, but Johnathon Banks told me to start quickly,” Whyte said after the fight. “I landed high on his temple and that was it. I can’t wait to fight Joshua. I’m confident.”
If that had been Joshua in there tonight getting hit with Whyte’s left hooks, I don’t think Joshua would have made it out of the 1st round either. Whyte has a lethal left hook, and there’s not too many heavyweights in the division that will be able to stand up to that shot, least of all someone like Joshua, who was already dropped by Whyte’s left hook in their previous fight.
Other boxing results on the card:
Martin Joseph Ward UD 10 Sergio Blanco
Charlie Flynn pts 4 Dan Carr
Kristian Laight pts 4 Carl Chadwick
George Rhodes pts 4 Paul O’Brien
Stuart Hall pts 6 Edwin Tellez
Ryan Fuller pts 4 Martin Szatmari
Connor Seymour pts 6 Duane Green
Gamal Yafai pts 6 Angel Lorente
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