Campbell upsets the odds in fight of the year contender
● There’s no rest for the wicked, or this winner at Emperors Palace on Friday night.
Rowan Campbell had just returned to the dressing room after unleashing the most devastating performance of his career, and his trainer was already giving him a technical lesson.
“You were waiting too long,” Peter Smith told him. “That’s when you get hit.
“When you’re standing in range you must throw punches,” added the coach, illustrating his point by flashing his jab into fresh air, followed by a right.
The bruised boxer nodded, but he couldn’t stop smiling his wide toothy grin as he revelled in his stunning victory that deserves to be a fight of the year contender.
Awesome punching power
Campbell got clocked a few times in the early rounds by Patrick Mukala, who went into the bout widely tipped as the favourite because of his awesome punching power.
Campbell had hit the deck in his last few bouts, but he absorbed Mukala’s blows like a bomb shelter.
When Mukala tried roughing him up on the inside with elbows and head, Campbell responded in kind.
When Mukala spat fire, Campbell roared back a furnace, wearing his opponent down until battering him into a stumbling wreck in the seventh round.
A series of right hands to the head had Mukala reeling against the ropes, and just when it seemed that he might recover, Campbell nailed him with a left hook that turned him to jelly, making him an easy target for more punches. Mukala swayed and stayed on his feet, but he was helpless when referee Tony Nyangiwe wisely waved it over.
Campbell made it look so easy, yet he had had doubts during the build-up, Smith said.
“Rowan was nervous when we took the fight. He and Patrick had sparred once or twice before and Rowan knew he was a strong sparring partner. I think Rowan felt a little intimidated.”
But not by fight time. Campbell went into the ring looking more focused than he has before, and once he settled down after the second round, he was pretty much in control.
“Two weeks ago I told myself I’m going to make this my best performance,” said Campbell, now unbeaten in 11 fights with seven stoppages.
Smith said there was no need to rush Campbell, holder of the SA super-middleweight crown. “Rowan, in my eyes, is still in a growing phase,” he said, adding he might fight overseas in the near future.
Ricardo Malajika stole the undercard with a darting but destructive showing against Leyton Gloss.
Malajika dropped him with a left in the third round and then decked him heavily with a right hook in the sixth.
The referee ended it without counting.