By Scott Gilfoid: WBC Silver lightweight champion Luke Campbell (15-1, 12 KOs) retained his Silver strap with a 4th round knockout win over grizzled veteran Derry Mathews (38-11-2, 20 Kos) on Saturday night at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK. Campbell, 29, knocked Mathews down three times in the fight in dropping him once in round three and two more times in round four.
The fight was halted after Campbell knocked the 33-year-old Mathews down with a left to the body. Mathews was counted out. Both knockdowns in round four were from body shots from Campbell. In the 3rd, Campbell bumped into Mathews, causing him to fall down. The referee didn’t see that Campbell had bumped into Mathews. Thankfully, the referee’s blunder didn’t have an impact on the fight.
The taller 5’9″ Campbell was catching Mathews with shots the entire fight while he was trying to get in punching range. Mathews didn’t help himself by failing to jab on his way in. He was just coming forward looking to swat Campbell with power shots, and that was a dumb strategy, because he kept getting nailed. When Mathews would get in punching range, Campbell would grab him in a clinch and swing him around to toss him into the ropes or put him in a head lock. It was pretty dirty stuff from Campbell, who also was throwing low blows. Mathews didn’t have an answer for Campbell’s roughhouse tactics and clinching. I’m not sure why Mathews didn’t make some adjustments by using his jab and roughing Campbell up in return.
There wasn’t much action to speak of in the 1st round, as both guys looked afraid to let their hands go. You could understand it on Campbell’s part, because he’d been dropped by Argenis Mendez and Yvan Mendy. Campbell looked like he didn’t want to take any head shots for fear he’d hit the canvas again. That’s probably why he kept grabbing Mathews repeatedly to tie him up. With the referee doing nothing to police Campbell’s constant clinching, Mathews was out there on an island and just having to deal with it rather than having a good referee that would penalize for the holding.
All in all, Campbell didn’t show anything tonight that would suggest that he’ll be able to beat the winner of the Jorge Linares vs. Dejan Zlaticanin fight to win the WBC lightweight champion. Those guys are a heck of a lot smarter than Mathews when it comes to using their boxing skills. Campbell would be getting hit with jabs, uppercuts, you name it from those fighters, and I don’t see him being able to win. Campbell still has unfinished business with Yvan Mendy. It’s unclear why Campbell’s promoter Eddie Hearn doesn’t put him back in there with him so he can avenge the loss. I guess there’s some confidence issues. I don’t blame Hearn. Mendy has Campbell’s number, and he’d likely beat him again without any problems if he made the mistake of throwing him back inside the ring with the hard hitter.