01.09.07 – By Jorge Guerrero: Former light middleweight champion Luis Ramon “Yory Boy” Campas (90-10, 72 KOs) won a 10-round unanimous decision over former “Contender” reality television fighter Norberto Bravo (24-14-3, 13 KOs) on Friday night to capture the IBA Continental light middleweight title at the Casino Del Sol, in Tucson, Arizona..
The final scores – 95-94, 95-94 and 95-94 – were no indication of how close the fight was, because from what I saw of the fight, Campas was far the busier fighter and the much more effective puncher until the 8th round when he began tiring somewhat and lost a couple of rounds in the process.
Campas dominated the action in rounds one thru seven, landing hooks the midsection and right hands to the head and keeping Bravo mostly stuck on defense. Campas was a non-stop punching machine during these rounds, and giving Bravo few chances to catch a breather in between attacks.
Although at 37, Campas has slowed somewhat and doesn’t punch as hard as he previously did, he still has very heavy hands and can still land with authority against a stationary target. Bravo proved unable to match either Campas’ work rate or power during these rounds, and fell way behind on my score card.
In the fourth round, Campas landed two low blows and received a warning from the referee. Two rounds later, Campas landed another low blow while attempting to land a shot to the body, and the referee deducted a point. However, Campas came on strong to win the round, and thus making the round an even round.
In the eighth round, Bravo, now looking very desperate, hurt Campas with two hard right hands, causing him to back up a couple of steps. However, like a true warrior that he is, Campas merely shook his head and came back forward, punching as if nothing had happened. Bravo landed several more hard shots to finish the round very strong and looking good going into the next round.
Campas came out for the ninth looking tired, but he never slowed for an instant and kept coming forward and throwing hooks to the body and head, forcing the fresher Bravo to back up to the ropes and defend himself.
While on the ropes, Bravo landed with some thudding right hands that again appeared to hurt Campas for a second, but like in the previous round, Campas refused to give in and continued to come forward and attack.
In the 10th round, Campas willed himself to victory, coming forward constantly with almost nothing left on his punches, yet throwing nonstop and catching Bravo over and over due to the mass volume of punches thrown. Still, despite his exhaustion, Campas’ punching form was nothing short of extraordinary as he threw picture perfect hooks to the head and body, making Bravo eat a ton of leather in the process. As the round was nearing the end, Bravo landed three right hands just before the bell. However, it proved to be far too late to win the round due to the excellent work Campas had done over the course of it.
The round had some of the best two way action I’ve seen in boxing in quite some time with both fighters giving it their all to the final bell. While the title at stake may not have meant much to many fans, the action proved to be priceless and much more exciting than watching a typical championship fight with one of the more respected alphabet titles.