By Charles Brun: Luke Campbell and Ryan Garcia could soon be fighting for the interim WBC 135-pound title with the winner being mandatory for WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney. The WBC ordered the Campbell vs. Garcia fight this week.
The 32-year-old former two-time world title challenger Campbell notes that Ryan Garcia has 6.6 million followers on social media. However, Campbell says Ryan’s many followers won’t be able to assist him when he meets him inside the ring.
Unfortunately, it’s still not 100% certain that Ryan will be fighting Campbell. There’s a lot of things that need to be done before this fight happens, and it won’t be surprising if it doesn’t take place.
Although Campbell’s promoter Eddie Hearn is excited about the WBC’s order, Ryan’s promoters at Golden Boy haven’t said whether they’ll go along with it. Golden Boy president Eric Gomez said that they’re meeting with Ryan today, and they’ll discuss what he wants to do.
You can bet that Golden Boy will have other options for the 21-year-old Garcia (20-0, 17 KOs), and it could be another soft opponent.
Campbell was previously supposed to be fighting Javier Fortuna for the interim WBC title, but he’s decided to face Jorge Linares instead.
Luke question Ryan Garcia’s experience
“He has a hell of a following but they won’t help him in the ring,” said Campbell to skysports.com about Ryan Garcia. “It’s hard to see what they are about until they have been in the ring with someone of quality who has a good CV.
By the amount of fights they [Ryan and Devin Haney] have had, I had already beaten two former world champions. Neither of them have fought a former world champion yet. Time will tell.”
It would have been better of Campbell didn’t include the comment about him having beaten two former world champions. The guys that Campbell is referring to are Darleys Perez and Argenis Mendez.
Those two fighters were only BRIEFLY world champions, having won their titles against lesser guys. For example, Mendez won the IBF featherweight title in 2013 in beating Juan Carlos Salgado by a fourth-round knockout.
Salgado then promptly lost seven of his last eight fights. He wasn’t a solid fighter. As for Darleys Perez, he received his WBA lightweight title through email. Perez didn’t beat anyone to become champion.
Perez captured the interim WBA 135-lb belt in January 2015 in beating Jonathan Maicelo by a 12 round decision. He then lost the belt against Anthony Crolla in November 2015.
Campbell has failed when facing quality opposition
When Campbell turned pro in 2013, he had big things expected of him, but he’s failed to live up to those expectations. In 2012, Campbell captured a gold medal in the 2012 Olympics for Great Britain. After that, a lot of boxing fans thought Campbell would go on to do big things in the pro ranks, but it’s failed to happen.
In Campbell’s first attempt at winning a world title, he was beaten by WBA lightweight champion Jorge Linares by a 12 round split decision in September 2017. Campbell, his fans and his promoter Eddie Hearn, all thought that he deserved a win.
The 5’9″ southpaw Campbell was too slow and unable to handle the speed and combination punching from Linares. In rounds one through four and nine through twelve, Linares turned on his offense dominated. Linares took his foot off the accelerators in the middle rounds, five through eight.
In Campbell’s other title fight, he was beaten by Vasiliy Lomachenko by a 12 round unanimous decision last August. That was a lopsided defeat for Campbell.
As you can see, Campbell has fought for world titles, but he’s lost. And as for his wins over former world champions, they were paper champs [Mendez and Perez].