Luke Campbell (boxer)

Senior ABA titles

Campbell, who fights out of the St. Paul's Amateur Boxing Club in Hull, won the English senior ABA Bantamweight title in 2007 and retained the honour in 2008 after beating Gareth Smith 23–1 in the final.

2008 European Championships

He represented England at the 2008 European Amateur Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England. At the championships Campbell defeated Olympic bronze medalist Veaceslav Gojan in the quarterfinals and German Denis Makarov in the semifinals before facing experienced Bulgarian Detelin Dalakliev in the final.

After four rounds the Bulgarian levelled the scores in the fight to 5 each after he scored a point in the last two seconds of the fight. The decision then went to countback and Campbell was awarded the title making Campbell the first Englishman to win a European amateur title since 1961.

2010 Four Nations Challenge

Following his successful return, following a year long sabbatical to recover from tendon surgery, to International competition at the WBC Night Of Champions in Cardiff in July, Luke started his 2012 London Olympics preparations by securing Gold at the Four Nations Challenge in Sheffield.

On the Saturday Luke, who convincingly won his Featherweight (57 kg) fight by an 11–5 points margin over China’s Jun Tan at the WBC Night Of Champions, continued his winning ways by beating Kazakhstan’s Shulakov Madi by 6 – 4 in the semi final of the Four Nations Challenge.

In Sunday’s final Luke again faced Jun Tan from China, his adversary the previous week at the WBC Night of Champions. As before Luke dominated the proceedings, this time winning by an increased points margin of 11–3.

2011 World Championships

Campbell qualified for the 2012 Olympic Games after winning a silver medal at the 2011 World Amateur Boxing Championships – Bantamweight in Baku, Azerbaijan.

2012 Summer Olympics

At the 2012 London Olympics, Campbell won gold in the 56 kg Bantamweight division after beating Ireland's John Joe Nevin 14:11. Campbell had earlier beaten Italian, Vittorio Parrinello, by 11:9. In the quarter-finals he met Detelin Dalakliev of Bulgaria in his closest bout of the competition, controversially edging it by a score of 16:15. His next opponent, Satoshi Shimizu from Japan- who had earlier been reinstated in the tournament by AIBA after a successful appeal after a defeat by Magomed Abdulhamidov was beaten by 20:11. Campbell beat Nevin in the final bout, and dropped the Irishman at the start of the third round, thus becoming the first bantamweight boxer to win Olympic gold for Great Britain since Henry Thomas in 1908.

A first class postage stamp, depicting Campbell, was issued by Royal Mail and a post box in Hessle Road, Hull was painted gold to commemorate his gold medal win. Local telephone network provider, KC, have also commemorated the win by painting one of their telephone boxes, near to St Paul's Boxing Club, gold.

Campbell was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to boxing.

Early career

Campbell's first professional fight took place on 13 July 2013 at Craven Park in his home city of Hull. His opponent was Andy Harris who he beat in the first round. Campbell continued his undefeated start to his career with a 5th round stoppage of Lee Connelly in Hull on 2 November 2013. In his fifth professional bout Campbell carried on his undefeated record and became the first person to stop Scott Moises.

In April 2014, Campbell announced that he would be taking a break from boxing, pulling out of his next scheduled bout, following his father being diagnosed with cancer.

Despite announcing he would be taking a break from boxing, Campbell fought a further four times in 2014. A points win over Craig Woodruff, a knockout win of Steve Trumble, a TKO victory over Krzysztof Szot and another TKO win over Daniel Eduardo Brizuela. In March 2015, Campbell faced off against 24 year old Nicaraguan Levis Morales (11-1-1, 4 KOs) at the Ice Arena in Hull. Campbell knocked down Morales in round 2 and 3, before the referee Howard John Foster stopped the fight resulting in a TKO victory for Campbell.

On 1 August, Campbell claimed the vacant WBC International lightweight title by defeating fellow Hullensian Tommy Coyle (21-2, 10 KOs) via 10-round TKO at the KC Lightstream Stadium. This was also a WBC lightweight eliminator. Coyle was knocked down once in round 2 following a left to the body and three times in round 12 before the referee waved off the fight. Only four months later in December, Campbell lost the title and mandatory status in a split decision loss to French boxer Yvan Mendy (32-4-1, 16 KOs) at the O2 Arena in London. Campbell was floored for the first time in his professional career in a ragged defensive display as Mendy received a split decision with scores of 115-112, 115-113, while the third judge scored it 115-113 for Campbell.

After a 3-month lay off, Campbell started a comeback trail in March on the undercard of Brook-Bizier at the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield fighting British boxer Gary Sykes (28-4, 6 KOs) for the vacant Commonwealth lightweight title. Campbell made a winning return to the ring in spectacular fashion only needing two rounds to finish Sykes off in his first fight since losing his unbeaten professional record. A left hook that landed hard on the top of Sykes' head had him struggling before a straight right put him down. Although Sykes beat the count, Campbell was all over him. It was the left-hook that opened the door again, this time in the midsection, followed by a right to the temple. Referee Steve Gray moved swiftly in as Sykes' corner was throwing their towel to halt the fight.

Promoter Eddie Hearn revealed Campbell was next due to fight on 30 July 2016 at the First Direct Arena in Leeds for the vacant WBC Silver lightweight title against 30 year old former IBF super featherweight champion Argenis Mendez (23-4-1, 12 KOs). Although being floored by a sharp right hand in the second round, Campbell proved to be too quick and dominated the remainder of the fight to claim the vacant WBC Silver lightweight title. From the third round, it became a comfortable fight for Campbell who moved his opponent around the ring and caught him with a succession of punches. The scorecards were all in favour of Campbell 116-111, 117-110, 115-112, who stated he would now like to land a world title shot.

Campbell vs. Mathews

Campbell fought former British and Commonwealth lightweight champion and former world title challenger Derry Mathews (38-10, 20 KOs) on the undercard of the world cruiserweight title fight between Tony Bellew and BJ Flores at the Echo Arena on 15 October, live on Sky Sports. This was the first defence of the WBC Silver lightweight title in a scheduled 12 round bout. The fight started off as a brawl, however Campbell proved to be too quick as he retained his titles and kept his future world title shot alive after stopping Mathews in round four. Mathews was dropped following a couple of left hooks to his body. In the post fight interview, Campbell claimed, despite winning via stoppage, his game plan was 'to outbox Mathews for a points win'.

Campbell vs. Lopez

On 3 January 2017, it was announced that Campbell would defend his WBC Silver title against Mexican fringe boxer Jairo Lopez (21-6, 14 KOs) at the Ice Arena in Hull on 25 February. The title defence would be part of a triple header, also including fellow Hullensian Tommy Coyle and Gavin McDonnell challenging for the vacant WBC World super bantamweight championship. Campbell won the fight in round 2 after a well timed uppercut floored Lopez. Referee Ian-John Lewis halted the fight. Lopez was also dropped in round 1 just before the bell rang. Campbell retained his WBC silver lightweight title. After the fight, Campbell and promoter Eddie Hearn both said the fight they were chasing next is a rematch with French boxer Yvan Mendy, to avenge his sole loss. “Mendy has done the worst thing possible in beating me", Campbell said after the fight.

Campbell vs. Pérez

On 10 April 2017, Eurosport and Sky Sports announced that Campbell would be involved in a WBA Lightweight title eliminator against former interim WBA ightweight titlist Darleys Pérez (33-2-2, 21 KOs) on the Anthony Joshua vs. Wladimir Klitschko undercard at the Wembley Stadium on 29 April 2017. The winner would be in the number one position to challenge champion Jorge Linares. Pérez weighed over the limit at 136.3 pounds, so had he won the bout, he would not have been eligible for the mandatory spot. Campbell racked up the win via a 9th round stoppage win, which was due to injury. It was said that Pérez hurt his left arm after a throwing a left hook. He signaled to the referee that he could not continue and the fight was stopped at 1 minute 28 seconds into the round. Although Pérez started the fight well, enough to win the first three rounds, he physically looked gassed by the later rounds where Campbell took over. With the win, Campbell was made the new mandatory challenger to WBA champion, held by Jorge Linares. Eddie Hearn said he would speak to Golden Boy Promotions to push things forward for the fight to be made.

Campbell vs. Linares

Golden Boy Promotions matchmaker, Robert Diaz, announced that WBA and The Ring lightweight champion Jorge Linares (42-3, 27 KOs) would next fight on 23 September 2017 and ruled out Campbell as his opponent. The plan being to have Campbell to fight on the undercard. If both fighters win their respected bouts, they would meet in the future. On 21 July 2017 the WBA ordered Linares to make a mandatory defence against Campbell. As per WBA rules, a titleholder must fight a mandatory within 9 months, this time would expire on 23 July, having won the title from Crolla in September 2016. Both sides were given 30 days to come to an agreement for the fight. On 27 July, a deal was reached for Linares and Campbell to fight at The Forum in Inglewood, California on 23 September 2017. The bout will be shown live on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom and on HBO: Boxing After Dark in the United States. In an interview, Linares said, “I am excited to make my return to the US and to headline a HBO show for the first time. I know Campbell is a tough [...] I am confident that I will emerge victorious on September 23rd.” This fight would mark the second time Campbell fights professionally in California.

Personal life

Campbell has two sons with his wife Lynsey Kraanen.

Campbell's grandfather was an Irish boxing champion and members of Campbell's family still live in Ireland.

Luke was born in Hull and supports local football team Hull City. He featured in a video by Hull City in 2015

In the media

In December 2012 it was announced that Campbell would take part in ITV's Dancing on Ice series 8 which started on 6 January 2013, skating with professional Jenna Smith. He reached the final of Dancing On Ice 2013 with Beth Tweddle and Matt Lapinskas. He came third while Matt came second and Beth came first.