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.
By Scott Gilfoid: Derry Mathews (38-10-2, 20 KOs) is really up against it tonight in facing A-side fighter Luke Campbell (14-1, 11 KOs) in lightweight action at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England.
Campbell is the World Boxing Council Silver lightweight champion, which means absolutely nothing, because it’s not a major title. However, the 29-year-old Campbell is the one that is being given a major push towards a world title. He’s the one with the cache in this fight, as he’s a 2012 Olympic gold medalist from the UK. As such, you can argue that Mathews will be starting the fight tonight six rounds in the hole.
By Scott Gilfoid: 2012 Olympic gold medalist Luke Campbell (14-1, 11 KOs) could be in for a world of hurt on Saturday night when he defends his WBC Silver lightweight strap against the far more experienced Derry Mathews (38-10-2, 20 KOs) at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK. Mathews says that Campbell has never been inside the ring in the pro ranks with a puncher like himself, and he’s never had to take power shots like the ones he’s going to be continually bouncing off his chin on Saturday night.
Mathews feels that his power is going to put Campbell on the canvas and keep him there. Mathews, 33, points out that Campbell has already been dropped twice in his still young pro career, and that wasn’t even against big punchers. Mathews feels there’s a weakness there in Campbell’s chin that he can take advantage of on Saturday night to get the lanky 5’9” fighter out of there.
By Scott Gilfoid: WBC Silver lightweight champion Luke Campbell (14-1, 11 KOs) will be defending his title this Saturday night against former lightweight world title challenger Derry Mathews (38-10-2, 20 KOs) this Saturday night in a toss-up fight on the undercard of the Tony Bellew vs. BJ Flores card at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK.
Campbell has been matched pretty easily since his 12 round split decision loss to Yvan Mendy last December in London. Campbell, 29, has won his last two fights against Gary Sykes and Argenis Mendez. The fight against 30-year-old former IBF World super featherweight champion Mendez was supposed to have been a step up, but it really wasn’t.
By Scott Gilfoid: #5 WBC lightweight contender Luke Campbell (14-1, 11 KOs) will be fighting former world title challenger Derry Mathews (38-10-2, 20 KOs) on October 15 in a scheduled 12 round bout on the undercard of the cruiserweight match-up between WBO champion Tony Bellew and BJ Flores at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK.
It’s a decent fight between fringe level lightweights. Neither of these guys will likely ever win a world title at lightweight unless it’s an ideal situation where they’re facing a vulnerable champion like Anthony Crolla. The winner of the Campbell vs. Mathews fight wont really prove anything though. If you feed either of these guys to Mikey Garcia, it’s going to be a real massacre in my view. Campbell-Mathews is more of a domestic level fight than anything.
Mathews, 32, has a very good chance of beating Campbell if he puts the pressure on him and keeps it on him. Campbell’s chin is suspect, and he doesn’t react well to getting hit at the pro level.
By Scott Gilfoid: In a fairly one-sided fight, WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan (30-0, 12 KOs) defeated fringe contender Derry Mathews (38-10-2, 20 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night to retain his WBO 135lb title at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK. The final scores were 117-111, 115-112 and 117-110. The scores were decent enough.
Unfortunately, the Flanagan-Mathews fight failed to live up to the hype. It was supposed to be a great contest with a lot of action, but in reality it was two tall fighters standing on the outside throwing a lot of single shots. Flanagan did attempt to rush Mathews repeatedly in the early rounds. Flanagan would run forward while throwing flurries. It was real amateurish stuff from Flanagan, but it had worked against the weak and small opponents he’d been matched against in the past. Mathews had too much size and experience to be blown out by Flanagan’s amateurish moves.
By Scott Gilfoid: WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan (29-0, 12 KOs) will be defending his title tonight against fringe contender Derry Mathews (38-9-2, 20 KOs) at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK. This is a voluntary defense for the 26-year-old Flanagan. Instead of going with a bigger name and a more talented fighter, Flanagan has opted to fight the 32-year-old Mathews, who he already beat in 2012 by a decision.
By Scott Gilfoid: WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan (29-0, 12 KOs) and his opponent #10 WBO challenger Derry Mathews (38-9-2, 20 KOs) both successfully made weight on Friday for their clash this Saturday night on March 12 at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK. The 26-year-old Flanagan weighed in at the lightweight limit at 135lbs.
His opponent Mathews weighed in at 134.4lbs. The Flanagan-Mathews fight card can be seen on BoxNation.
Flanagan looked in good shape, as did Mathews. Their conditioning has never been a question with these two fighters. The only thing that you can question is their overall talent in comparison to the other top fighters in the division. We have already seen Mathews exposed repeatedly in the past.
By Scott Gilfoid: WBO interim 135lb champion Derry Mathews (38-9-2, 20 KOs) thinks unbeaten WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan (29-0, 12 KOs) doesn’t fancy a fight against him, and that’s why he postponed their previously scheduled February 13th fight in putting it off until March 12th at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK.
Officially, Flanagan came down with a case of tendonitis in his left hook, which caused the fight to be postponed until 3/12. However, Mathews, 32, just flat out thinks that Flanagan doesn’t want to take the fight.
There are rumors that Flanagan is hoping to get a unification fight against WBA lightweight champion Anthony Crolla. The only way that fight could happen is if Flanagan can convince the WBO to let him bypass the fight against Mathews in order to face Crolla in a unification match.
By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan (29-0, 12 KOs) is reportedly dealing with tendonitis that will need time for him to heal up from. As such, his previously scheduled fight against challenger Derry Mathews has been moved from 2/13 to 3/12 at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK.
You have to hope that the 26-year-old Flanagan’s tendonitis is healed by March, because sometimes those things linger on and on. Speaking for myself, I’d had bouts with tendonitis that has dragged on for six months at a time before finally healing.
Sometimes it takes forever. The last thing Flanagan needs is to come back before his injury has healed and he finds himself fighting at less than 100 percent. Mathews is too good of a fighter for Flanagan to be facing if he isn’t completely healed. I can see the 32-year-old Mathews pulling off an upset under those conditions.