Linares V Campbell ordered by WBA

The fight has been ordered with Luke Campbell being the mandatory challenger to the WBA 135lb belt after beating Darleys Perez last time out. Linares is now living in the UK full time with his family so the odds are the fight will be in the UK.

How do we think this will go? I can't see beyond a Linares win. Both sides have 30 days to come to an agreement otherwise purse bids will be ordered.

I do rate Campbell, has handspeed and some power but unfortunately I don't think he is world level yet. Linares in the championship rounds.

Not interested in Linares till he fights Mikey Garcia

I think it's a good fight until Garcia is through with broner

You're right though, it's a decent fight

Decent bout but Linares will win a handy UD

It might end up on the AJ/Wlad undercard I reckon

TheSquaredCircle wrote:I do rate Campbell, has handspeed and some power but unfortunately I don't think he is world level yet. Linares in the championship rounds.

Agree, verbatim.

I actually quite like this fight. Linares is definitely the favourite but Campbell is live underdog. I think Campbells loss has been good for him. He got walked down and didn't look strong enough. Since then he has looked much stronger and grown in to more of man (if thats makes sense). He can obviously box and can dig a bit. Linares can be hurt so its possible Campbell can cause an upset. I would lean towards Linares to win late but wouldnt rule out Campbell stoppage or on points. I definitely wont be be betting on this one.

The fight has been finalised for September 23rd in Los Angeles, live on HBO and Sky Sports

Linares should win this, probably by KO

But its a great fight for Luke and a great experience

I thought Campbell would be stopped somewhere in the middle rounds and that though might have affected my judgement but I had him winning, certainly put in a great effort having been dropped early on. As it went on I thought he controlled the fight up the late rounds, stopping Linares getting into a rhythm. Perhaps a re-match in the UK next year.

completely forgot this was on... shame sounds like a good fight. Opinion split on who deserved the nod. Guess the knockdown made the difference in the end.

Championship rounds determined the outcome of the fight. Linares clearly won rounds 11 and 12. How the Scottish judge gave gave Campbell the 11th and the 12th as even is beyond ridiculous. Campbell will probably fight the winner of Burns/Crolla. Linares has earned the big payday against Mikey Garcia

Very good fight and very good effort from Luke

It was a great fight, maybe we will see a rematch?

I ended up with 115-112 in Linares' favour. I thought Campbell was on his way to winning the second round before the knockdown, so had he seen that round out rather than having it as a 10-8 against him, it'd have been a draw on my card. That said, even had that happened I'd have to concede that Linares tended to win his rounds a little more convincingly, and overall him getting the decision definitely feels like the right outcome.

But it was a very game effort by Campbell who should take encouragement from this. I wasn't really expecting him to give Linares such a good argument. I think he was very good tactically, not opening up to give Linares the chance to counter and also protecting his body well, and in the middle rounds he did some nice work with his right, answering Linares' jab with it quite a few times.

Linares tends to flitter between the sublime and the workmanlike, and I don't think last night was one of his greatest showings, but around the eighth round he seemed to wake up a bit and realise that he couldn't keep waiting to Campbell to open up and give him countering opportunities, or keep letting Campbell get off first as he followed him around the ring. He started initiating a bit more around the eighth round, and once he started letting his hands go and punching in twos and threes he just had that bit too much class for Luke.

As a side note, Campbell has announced today that his old man passed away a couple of weeks ago. Everyone knew he'd been ill for a long time, so it's not unexpected, but he says he didn't let anyone know because he didn't want Linares or his team thinking he was in a vulnerable state of mind. Can't have been easy preparing for the fight of your life in those circumstances, and it just serves to make his performance all the more meritorious.

He's a good kid and a credit to his late Dad.............

Think the slow start cost him....

1-2-3-11-12 with a 10-8 for 2 to the Champ for me.............114 to Luke with 7 rounds left to judge on....

You'd have had to give Luke all of them...................I did....

Campbell 114-113 Linares................But no big argument about Linares winning....

Could have gone either way...........Fancy Luke for the rematch Linares is knocking on for a lower weight fighter and Campbell's southpaw skills are awkward for anybody.

Good fight and both a credit to the sport.

Had Linares winning by 3 but fair play to Campbell for pushing a very good champion all the way. Would really like to see him fight Crolla assuming he beats Burns.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:He's a good kid and a credit to his late Dad.............

Think the slow start cost him....

1-2-3-11-12 with a 10-8 for 2 to the Champ for me.............114 to Luke with 7 rounds left to judge on....

You'd have had to give Luke all of them...................I did....

Campbell 114-113 Linares................But no big argument about Linares winning....

Could have gone either way...........Fancy Luke for the rematch Linares is knocking on for a lower weight fighter and Campbell's southpaw skills are awkward for anybody.

Good fight and both a credit to the sport.

Pretty much spot on trussy

Well done Campbell. Showed he can come again and win a strap. Started and ended slow, but was great a times. So sad about his dad. What courage. Get Linares over to UK and I think Campbell beats him.

Can't believe i missed this as i thought Campbell would be well and truly outclassed, more fool me as i should know anything can happen in boxing.

Really happy for him though as he seems like a good fella and he's had a tough time, showed he can hang with the big boys so here's hoping forbetter things for him.

I think Hearn will stick him in with likes of Crolla in UK, build Campbell's name back up a bit. then get him another shot on UK soil. His career has been up and down, hard not to think his dad's cancer battle seriously impacted him at times. Wish him all the best.