By Jim Dower: #2 WBC, #8 WBA Luke Campbell (17-1, 14 KOs) defeated former WBA World lightweight champion Darleys Perez (33-3-2, 21 KOs) by a 9th round injury stoppage on Saturday night in a WBA World lightweight title eliminator at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Perez injured his left arm in round 9 after attempting a left hook. The fight had to be stopped at that point.
The official time of the stoppage was at 1:28 of the 9th round. Boxing News 24 had Campbell winning the fight 5 rounds to 3 going into round 9. Perez looked gassed out and done for the night at the start of round 9.
Perez got the better of the action in the first three rounds with his nice right hands. Campbell didn’t look at all comfortable with the shots coming back at him.
Starting in round 4, Campbell started coming on in landing big left hands to the head of Perez.
Campbell appeared to shakeup Pere with a left hand to the head in round 6. Perez made it through the last seconds of the round, but he looked hurt.
In rounds 7 and 8, Campbell dominated the action with his left hands to the head. Perez no longer looked confident, as he was taking too many big shots.
With the win, Campbell is now the World Boxing Association mandatory challenger to WBA lightweight champion Jorge Linares.
“Perez is a smart fighter. I had to be smart in there,” said Campbell after the fight. “This is exactly the kind of fight that I wanted. Perez has been in there with some of the best. Most definitely,” said Campbell when he was asked if he wants to challenge Jorge Linares next. “Linares is a great champion. To be the best you have to beat the best. That’s exactly what I’m going to do,” said Campbell.
Linares was standing behind Campbell as he was being interviewed after the fight. Campbell’s promoter Eddie Hearn obviously set this up to have Linares on hand tonight in case his fighter Campbell won the fight.
“We’re going to try and speak to Golden Boy to make Campbell vs. Linares next,” said Campbell’s promoter Eddie Hearn.
It looks like Linares will take the fight with Campbell next rather than fighting a unification fight against WBC champion Mikey Garcia or WBO champion Terry Flanagan. You would think that the money would be better for Linares if he took a unification fight with Mikey or Flanagan, but it’s possible that he could still make good money against Campbell.
