Heading into this Saturday afternoon’s (ESPN+ 4 p.m. ET) lightweight unification fight, there are many sub plots that accompany this major fight. WBA/WBO unified champion and top ranked pound for pound fighter in the world, Vasyl Lomachenko (13-1)(10 KO’s) defends his two portions of the lightweight crown against fellow 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist, and England native Luke Campbell (20-2)(16 KO’s). One of these sub plots is the fact that not only will the winner of this fight stake their claim as the best lightweight in the world with the two previously mentioned titles, the vacant WBC world lightweight title is also up for grabs. This means that Lomachenko can add a third title to his ever-growing collection of championships. While for Campbell, with one huge upset victory, he can go from top contender to owner of three of the four major titles in the division.
While we will take a closer look at the type of fight that
Lomachenko-Campbell could shape up to be once the first bell rings out from the
O2 Arena in London, what is intriguing is just what this fight means to the
lightweight division once the dust settles and a winner is announced. Earlier this summer the lightweight division
and the path towards crowning an undisputed champion was covered prior to the
title defense of IBF champion, Richard Commey ("The Road to Undisputed Lightweight King Begins").
With Commey successfully defending his version of the title
against Beltran, and Teofimo Lopez winning his fight to secure the spot as the
IBF number one contender, all signs point to the two men meeting in a
championship fight in December at Madison Square Garden. The victor of this Saturday’s fight in London
will be waiting with bated breath for the outcome of the proposed Commey-Lopez
fight. For Top Rank Promotions, the
ideal situation would be for Lomachenko to continue to impress the world by
proving with a victory over Campbell that he is the best fighter in the
world. It also would make a potential
fight next year with the winner of Commey-Lopez much easier to make since both
of those fighters also ply their trade under the Top Rank banner.
As mentioned in the article earlier this summer. Luke Campbell has attached himself to this
scenario as the absolute wild card. Campbell,
unlike the other three fighters mentioned, is not signed to Top Rank and is
promoted by Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing.
However, something tells me that if he can accomplish the upset by
beating Lomachenko, which not many boxing observers or fans on social media
seem to give him a valid chance in doing, Team Campbell may in fact be
demanding that they as well look no further then December’s fight for their
next opponent.
All of this means that Saturday will go a long way into
making the path and picture of crowning an undisputed lightweight champion much
clearer. As for the fight itself, this
event does say a lot about the reigning champion. With the fight taking place in London, it’s
not often that in today’s day and age of champions demanding to be considered
the “A” side of a promotion that the hometown fighter is the challenger. Lomachenko is proving that he is anything but
a regular champion. He sees this as an
opportunity to display his skills on a large scale in front of an audience that
hasn’t seen him compete live since his days in the World Boxing Series prior to
turning professional, or since the 2012 Olympic Games (held in London). One thing is for certain, while Campbell will
most likely have most of his native land’s support, with over 18,000 tickets
sold and a sellout expected, Lomachenko has been attending fight week events
that have been packed with his supporters.
Already an international star, an impressive victory over
Campbell would just add the rest of England to Lomachenko’s growing list of
supporters. Although its rare to see the
champion or pound for pound best willing to travel to the native land of the
challenger, to his credit Lomachenko had this to say about the task at hand on
Saturday. “Maybe it will be a harder
fight, but I can’t answer that until after the fight. Luke Campbell is not an easy fighter. He’s a top fighter. He’s a smart fighter. He’s a technical fighter, so it will be an
interesting and technical fight.”
What Lomachenko is referring, to aside from showing respect
to his challenger and fellow Olympic champion, is the only thing that boxing
observers have pointed to that favors Campbell going into this fight, his size
and reach advantage over the smaller champion.
Campbell is a very tall lightweight with solid fundamentals and a tough
southpaw style. He also has good
professional experience, only losing twice by split decision, one of those
fights being a 2017 loss to then WBA champion Jorge Linares. Although most people thought Linares was the
rightful winner of the fight, Campbell showed grit and determination after
being dropped in the second round by rising to his feet and adjusting in order
to make the fight a close one. Linares
was also the fighter that wound up dropping Lomachenko during their heated
fight last year when Lomachenko moved up in weight to capture the WBA title. ("Top Rank Boxing Presents Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Jorge Linares Recap")
“I’ve been through a lot having the experience of the London
Olympics, the crowds, the pressure of going out there, getting a medal and
winning. My professional career, coming
to America to fight Linares for a world title.
I’ve learned from my experiences, and boy, do I love a challenge. I’ve said for years being in boxing, to be
the best, you have to beat the best,” stated Campbell.
So, while his amateur pedigree and his professional
experiences, coupled with his physical traits have many feeling that Campbell
will make this a competitive fight, mostly everyone winds up saying that in the
end Lomachenko will find a way to figure out the right plan of attack during
the fight and make the adjustments needed to chop down his worthy
challenger. What will be interesting to
see is if Campbell will also be able to adjust to the champion’s adjustments in
order to try and take control of the fight as the challenger, and clearly come
out as the winner of the fight.
A couple things are for sure, whichever way this fight winds
up playing out, fight fans will continue to reap the benefits of cross
promotion as the best fight the best.
Also, one fighter will walk out of the ring with three of the four major
belts, thus taking us closer to an undisputed champion. Lastly, even if the fight does wind up
turning into a technical fight between the two fighters as they jockey for
advantages, it will be an intriguing high tense chess match. If this is the case, pay close attention to
the subtle boxing moves done with both the fighter’s hands and feet as they
probe for the right plan of attack to be successful. Enjoy, and let the lightweight picture get
that much clearer!
