Luke Campbell

A skilled fighter who has won both amateur and professional titles, Luke Campbell was born on September 27, 1987 in Hull, East Yorkshire, England. A soft-spoken southpaw who is known for sharp counterpunching, he has boxing in his genes, as his grandfather was an Irish champion.

Campbell began his training when he set foot in St. Paul’s Amateur Boxing Club at 13 years of age. His first major achievement was winning the English senior ABA bantamweight title in 2007, which he repeated in 2008. He took gold as a bantamweight at the 2008 European Amateur Boxing Championships, and followed that up with a bronze medal at the 2009 EU Championships. After collecting a silver medal at the 2011 World Amateur Boxing Championships, he earned a chance to compete at the 2012 Olympics. While he had close matches in the quarters, semis and the finals, he won them all to take the gold medal.

He turned pro on July 13, 2013 when he fought Andy Harris in Hull, in front of his hometown fans. He scored a dominant first-round TKO victory. His next fight was against Neil Hepper in October, and this time it was a first-round KO. Less than a month later he was fighting again and scoring another finish, this time in the fifth round against Lee Connelly.

Chuck Jones became the first fighter to take Campbell to a decision, but the slick southpaw won on points after four rounds. He then stopped Scott Moises in the eighth round, making him the first man to ever accomplish that.

Luke Campbell said he needed to take time off from boxing in April of 2014 because his father had cancer. However, he ended up fighting another four times that year, earning one decision win and three stoppages, which ran his record to 9-0.

After two more excellent TKO victories, he got his first title fight. He fought Tommy Coyle on August 1, 2015 in Hull for the WBC international lightweight title. In a beautiful performance, he knocked Coyle down multiple times throughout the contest before scoring a TKO in the 10th round to take the belt.

However, Campbell would end up losing that belt in his very next fight against Yvan Mendy. In a poor defensive performance, he got dropped for the first time in his career and ended up losing a close split decision.

He got right back into action three months later against Gary Sykes, and won the Commonwealth lightweight title by way of second-round TKO. His next fight was against Argenis Mendez for the WBC Silver lightweight title. Despite a defensive lapse in the second round that resulted in him getting dropped, he took over the rest of the fight and cruised to a unanimous decision win.

Luke Campbell showed off his power in his next performance, as he took out Derry Mathews with a vicious KO in the fourth round. He raised the bar even higher for his next fight, as he dropped Jairo Lopez in round one, and then finished him with a crushing uppercut in round two.