Tonight in Liverpool on the big Tony Bellew-BJ Flores bill, Olympic hero Luke Campbell scored one of the most impressive wins – if not the most impressive win – of his pro career, as he stopped the hugely experienced Derry Matthews in the 4th-round. Campbell, showing stunning accuracy and power, dropped the former interim WBA lightweight champion with two nasty left hands to the body, 33-year-old Matthews being counted out after his second trip to the canvas.
Time was 2 minutes and 46-seconds. Campbell is now 15-1(12) and the 29-year-old southpaw has won three in a row since his surprising defeat at the hands of Yvan Mendy. Matthews, who has had a long and at times hard career, is now 38-11-2(20). Matthews could well decide to retire after tonight’s relatively quick loss; the eighth stoppage loss of his 13 year pro career.
Campbell faced a dangerous veteran tonight and Matthews tried his best to land some hurt on the London 2012 gold medal winner. But the younger, far fresher and quicker man boxed very well and looked to land counter punches. The fight was shaping up as a very interesting affair, until the sudden ending.
Campbell showed again tonight that he is a major talent and it will be very interesting to see where he goes next – a return meeting with Mendy would be a great fight for the fans. Campbell retained his Commonwealth title tonight but bigger titles could be the Hull man’s in the near future.
Matthews may be past his best, but he had not been stopped since back in 2012 (by Gavin Rees) and in his last fight, in March of this year, the warrior from Liverpool took Terry Flanagan the full 12 rounds in a WBO lightweight title challenge. No-one was predicting Campbell to score such a quick win.