By Dan Ambrose: Devin Haney is picking Ryan Garcia to defeat Luke Campbell with relative ease when they fight in November for the interim WBC lightweight title. Haney isn’t impressed with the British fighter Campbell (20-3, 16 KOs), who he feels gets credit for being competitive in losing efforts.
The seven-year professional Campbell will be turning 33-years-old this month on September 27, and he’s yet to beat a top fighter during his career. WBC lightweight champion Haney (24-0, 15 KOs) thinks that Campbell is being praised too much for going 12 rounds against Vasiliy Lomachenko last year on August 31. Campbell fought well at times, but the two-time Olympic gold medalist still dominated him.
Haney says that Lomachenko was hurting Campbell the entire fight. Campbell likely would have been knocked out by Loma if he’d been stationary, but he was smart to stay on the move to limit the damage that he sustained.
A lot of boxing fans are already counting the 22-year-old King Ryan out, and they don’t see him having the experience needed for him to beat Campbell.
Eddie Hearn said this week that he thinks Golden Boy Promotions are making a terrible mistake in letting Ryan face Campbell. For Haney to view the Garcia-Campbell fight as an easy one for Ryan, it suggests that he knows something that the fans don’t.
Ryan Garcia will easily beat Luke
“It’s a good fight. Campbell is not a pushover,” said Haney to Fighthype. “You cannot say that he’s a pushover, but for some reason, I just see Ryan beating him fairly easy. I really do. I see that happening.
“A lot of people disagree, but I’ve been knowing Ryan for a while. I think Ryan is going to beat him easily. I do,” said Devin when asked if Campbell gets too much credit for his performance against Vasiliy Lomachenko.
Campbell has lost three times in defeats against Yvan Mendy, Jorge Linares, and Lomachenko. Those were all competitive fights with a lot of two-way action, but the southpaw Campbell still came up short.
If Ryan is going to beat Campbell with ease like Haney is suggesting, it likely means that he’ll knock him out. Ryan doesn’t win easily when he faces guys with talent. Carlos Morales and Jayson Velez gave Ryan problems. He beat both guys, but they were far from easy fights.
Campbell is clearly not the fighter that many people thought he would be after he turned professional in 2013. They assumed that because he won an Olympic gold medal in 2012 that he would become a world champion, but that hasn’t happened. Campbell is at least a top-five or top-six guy at 135.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez4p_UbardQ
Whether that’s good enough for Luke to beat Ryan remains to be seen. We’re going to find out in November if Ryan is as good as people think he is, and we’re also going to learn about Campbell. If he can’t beat Ryan, then you have to wonder if it’s worth it for him to continue on in boxing.
Campbell loses when he steps up
“Every big fight that he’s stepped up to, he’s lost. Who has he [Campbell] beat? Name someone,” said Devin. “He gets credit for going in there and doing a good job of not getting beat that bad. Little Lomachenko was hurting him the whole fight.
“Me and Loma were next to each other maybe two years ago. I was bigger than him then. I’m way bigger than that,” said Haney.
Campbell hasn’t beaten anyone talented during his career, and it’s foolish to add Linares’ name as a win for him because he lost to him. Hearn believes that Campbell deserved a victory against Linares in their match in 2017, but the judges felt he didn’t do enough.
I’ve never seen a competitor that is happy that he lost and that’s luke Campbell…
— Ryan Garcia (@KingRyanG) September 7, 2020
The best wins on Campbell’s resume are against these fighters:
- Derry Mathews
- Argenis Mendez
- Yvan Mendy
- Darleys Perez
- Gary Sykes
- Tommy Coyle
As you can see, Campbell’s resume is barren of talented opposition in terms of guys he’s beaten. Campbell has lost to some good fighters, but he’s yet to defeat a quality opponent.
Campbell is a little too proud of his performance against Lomachenko, seeing that he still lost, and it didn’t further his career. Ryan doesn’t understand why Campbell is trying to get a moral victory about his defeat, as that’s alien to his way of thinking.