Luke Campbell Feature

 LUKE CAMPBELL, UNDERRATED OR OVERRATED?

On the 30th July 2021, Luke “Coolhand” Campbell announced his retirement from professional boxing leaving the sport as one of Britains most talented boxers from the last 10 years and in my opinion he’s very underrated.

This is a guy that has won gold at the 2008 European championships, silver at the 2011 World Championships & that prestigious gold medal at the 2012 Olympics in London. One of the best amateurs Britain has ever had he then moved on to the professional stuff.

With wins against Tommy Coyle, Yvan Mendy & Darleys Perez he moved up in the rankings throughout the years. However, when tested up against the big dogs in the division he came up short. But to be fair, he faced Jorge Linares arguably at his best and Linares only won by split decision with Campbell feeling he won the fight with 1 of the 3 judges agreeing. Then pound for pound superstar Vasyl Lomachenko who many people gave Campbell very little chance of defeating and then ending it all with a stoppage defeat to rising star Ryan Garcia. Challenging for a world title twice & coming up short twice. Ouch.

He’s had some big nights though, boxing twice at Wembley Stadium on Anthony Joshua undercards where he gained revenge against Yvan Mendy who defeated the brit 3 years earlier. That was probably his biggest & best win maybe challenged by Coolhand Luke beating Adrian Yung who had never been stopped before & yet Campbell did just that stopping the fight in the 5th round.

His last fight, earlier this year was against rising superstar Ryan Garcia. Campbell was the bookies underdog going into the fight & yet surprised everyone dropping Garcia in the second round and seemingly stunning Garcia. How ever the American/Mexican retuned the favour in the 7th and Campbell just could not recover.

For me, Luke is someone that never shy’d away from testing himself against the best and he deserves massive credit for that & his stellar amateur career. Could he off carried on? Maybe. Should he off won a world title? Yes. Is he underrated? No. Is he overrated? No. I’m very much on the fence with this as I feel Campbell could defiantly have had a better career but for someone won only wanted to win an Olympic Gold medal.. he achieved his dream and gave British fight fans some fantastic nights and for that, he deserves credit.

Happy retirement Luke.

Written by @Ryanmisangyi7