Luke Campbell vs. Jorge Linares rematch in the works for Feb.

Image: Luke Campbell vs. Jorge Linares rematch in the works for Feb.
By Boxing News - 11/28/2019 - Comments

By Tim Royner: A rematch between Jorge Linares and Luke Campbell is being negotiated for early 2020, according to Michael Benson. Campbell, 32, will be fighting in February.

Campbell (20-3, 16 KOs) wants to avenge his 12 round split decision loss to Linares (46-5, 28 KOs) from two years ago. Linares defeated Campbell by a controversial decision on September 23, 2017 at The Forum in Inglewood, California.

Campbell coming off loss to Lomachenko

2012 Olympic gold medalist Campbell lost to Vasiliy Lomachenko by a 12 round on August 31 in London, UK. Campbell gave Loma all he could handle, but the scores handed down by the judges didn’t reflect that. The judges gave it to Lomachenko by the scores 118-109, 119-108 and 119-108.

“I’ll be out in early February. I do have an opponent in mind, but I really don’t want to say in case it excites everybody, and it don’t come off,” said Campbell to Talksport. “But we are looking for a big fight that will excite the fans. To me, I’d love to fight Linares. I think they’re in negotiations, but that’s a fight that I want,” said Campbell.

It’s a bit late for Campbell to be fighting the 34-year-old Linares at this stage, as the former three division world champion has lost 2 out of his last 4 fights. Some boxing fans believe Linares to be an over-the-hill fighter based on his knockout losses to Lomachenko and Pablo Cesar Cano.

Ryan Garcia wants Campbell fight

If Campbell is wants to prove himself, he’s better off fighting one of the top lightweights like Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia, Gervonta Davis or Yuriorkis Gamboa. Garcia said this month that he wants to fight Campbell in 2020.

The problem with Campbell fighting Linares, besides the perception that he’s shot, is the fact that he’s moved up to 140. For Campbell and Linares to fight each other, it would likely need to take place at light welterweight.

Up until getting stopped in the 10th, Linares was giving Lomachenko a tough fight last year in May Linares dropped Lomachenko in round 6. Although Loma won the fight, he was marked up, and he didn’t have it easy. Last January, Linares moved up to 140, and was shockingly stopped in the 1st round by Pablo Cesar Cano (33-7-1, 23 KOs) in New York. Linares was giving away a lot of size to the big punching Cano, and he made the mistake of trying to slug with him.

A lot of boxing fans felt that Campbell was robbed of a win by the judges. The scores were 114-113, 115-112 for Linares, and 115-113 for Campbell. It looked like Linares won the first 4 rounds, and the last four. He was getting the better of Campbell with his hand seed and combination punching. Linares got lazy in rounds 5-8, and let Campbell win those rounds uncontested.