END OF THE WORLD FOR CAMPBELL
BRIT’S TITLE DREAMS LOOK OVER AS GARCIA STOPS HIM IN SEVEN
EVen as Oscar De La Hoya hails his Instagram protégé Ryan Garcia as boxing’s new Golden Boy, so time is running out for Luke Campbell in his quest to add a world championship to his London Olympics gold medal.
That dream is ebbing as rapidly as the 10 seconds in which Campbell failed to rise from the canvas to which he was despatched by Garcia like a punctured balloon.
There was no way back from the viciously deflating body shot which settled Saturday night’s fight in Texas.
‘I kept trying and trying to get up but I couldn’t,’ said Campbell after his seventh-round collapse. It is equally difficult to see a way back to the summit after this defeat ended his third attempt to bid for that world lightweight title.
As if we need any reminding of how fast the world is changing in this time of Covid, it came with the youth, power, exuberance and good looks with which Garcia is galvanising hysteria by the millions on social media.
He added drama to his repertoire by recovering from his own second-round knockdown and De La Hoya enthused: ‘This is the kind of fight and kind of fighter to attract new fans to boxing. Our boy for the future became a man here tonight.’
At just 22 with the world and masses of young female followers at his feet. Which is precisely where Hull’s 33-year- old local hero found himself at the climax to this WBC championship final eliminator in the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
Garcia is not the finished article yet but by becoming the first to KO Campbell he may well have put an end to the loftiest of Cool Hand Luke’s ambitions.
With hindsight, it seems Campbell missed his chance against an ageing Jorge Linares in his first failed world title fight and may then have sustained some longterm damage in the second against Vasyl Lomachenko.
He now finds himself confronted by an intimidating array of younger talent not only at lightweight but at light-welter and welterweight if he decides to move up the divisions.
This was another chastening evening for British boxers in America. Garcia’s cheerleader here was Canelo Alvarez, fresh from adding Callum Smith to his culling of six UK challengers.
With the glorious exception of Tyson Fury we keep sending ’em over and they keep knocking ’em down. Campbell the latest, even though some pundits had doubted the wisdom of De La Hoya in pitting his putative heir to Canelo against such an experienced and battle- hardened opponent so soon.
As it turned out this was exactly the fight Garcia needed to elevate him from YouTube celebrity to genuine star of the prize ring.
Garcia said: ‘I have shown who I choose to be, not who people choose me to be.’
The justification for that began with the way he responded to the perfect left hook with which Campbell dropped him in the second round. Despite admitting ‘I felt dizzy’ he regained his feet and pounded his way to a victory so emphatic that he won every other round before unleashing his terminal body shot.
It almost ended in the fifth, when Campbell was saved by the bell after a combination left him slumped against the ropes. That explained his wariness in not following up his only success.
As did these words later: ‘Ryan is very heavy-handed. I felt his power even when I blocked his punches. He has a great future. The shot to the body is the hardest I’ve ever been hit in my life.’
That scotched his promised challenge to WBC champion Devin Haney, a mandatory offer now open to Garcia but one he may not accept.
In the flush of the best win on his unbeaten record he threw down the gauntlet to four-time world champion Gervonta Davis.
That, too, may seem premature since the 26-year-old called Tank is a brutal puncher himself. But it is too early, also, to write off a rising star with shuddering power of his own harnessed to lightning speed and buoyed by supreme self-confidence.
Garcia calls himself King Ryan. At the moment he is a prince of the ring but his coronation may not be too long in coming.