Luke Campbell is taking credit for putting wear & tear on Vasily Lomachenko last year, making him vulnerable for Teofimo Lopez to beat last October in their lightweight unification clash.
If Campbell beats Ryan Garcia (20-0, 17 KOs) next month in their rescheduled fight on December 19th, he could wind up facing the unified lightweight champion Teofimo in 2021 with all four of his titles on the line.
Although Campbell (20-3, 16 KO) lost a wide 12 round unanimous decision to Lomachenko on August 31, 2019, he believes that he got his pound of flesh during the contest.
For the record, Lomachenko beat the 33-year-old Campbell by the scores 109-118 and 108-119, and 108-119. It’s possible that Campbell did put some wear on the 32-year-old Lomachenko, as he didn’t look like the same fighter he’d been when he fought Teofimo (16-0, 12 KOs) on October 17th in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Teofimo beat Lomachenko by a 12-round unanimous decision by 116-112, 119-109, and 117-111. The fight was actually closer than the scores handed down, but Teofimo was the obvious winner.
“I said to everybody after the Lomachenko fight, that Lomachenko won’t be the same. I said I put a big dent in Lomachenko that night – and he’s not going to be the same,” said Campbell.
“He didn’t throw a punch for seven rounds, so Lopez could do what he wanted for seven rounds. I wish that Loma would have turned up for my fight.”
Lomachenko fought Teofimo with a right shoulder injury, which he later had surgery to repair. That might be the main reason for Lomachenko not throwing punches until the seventh or eighth round against Lopez.
We won’t know for sure if Campbell is the one that did the damage to Lomachenko until the Ukrainian fighter’s next match. Lopez, 23, isn’t expected to give Lomachenko an immediate rematch.
So whoever Lomachenko fights, he’s going to be watched closely by a lot of boxing fans to see if he’s still the same fighter. Unfortunately for Campbell, he won’t get credit if Lomachenko continues to struggle and lose.
The fans will see it as a case of Lomachenko having a long 400-fight amateur career in Ukraine, and they’ll ignore the comments from Campbell in trying to take credit for his downfall.
“He was moving around and throwing feints, but he wasn’t throwing anything, and Lopez had the range to do what he wanted, but as I say, hats off to Lopez he did a great job staying focused in there and switched on, and getting the win,” continued Campbell.
The 2012 Olympic gold medalist Campbell needs to make sure he beats ‘King’ Ryan Garcia next month in December for him to put himself in a position to take on Teofimo.
Mauricio Sulaiman of the WBC ordered Ryan vs. Campbell for the interim WBC lightweight title. The winner will then have the option to challenge WBC champion, Devin Haney.
Of course, if Campbell prefers to take on IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez, it’s understandable. That’s arguably a bigger paying fight for Campbell than if he were to face Haney.
