Jorge Linares managed a second round knockdown and a quality pair of championship rounds to win a closely scored split decision in defense of his WBA belt against Luke Campbell in Inglewood. Really this was a fight that could have been scored either way. It was also a terrific fight to watch.
Luke Campbell (17-2, 14 KOs) acquitted himself very well in his American debut here. This is despite the fact that while the first round was a bit of a nothing happening toss up, he started the fight quite poorly. Jorge Linares (43-3, 27 KOs) was on fire in rounds two and three. In the second round he dropped Campbell hard on an inside slick right hand counter, opening what was supposedly the first cut on Campbell in his career.
Yet, as has been his way for a decade at the top level of the sport now, Jorge Linares cannot maintain this virtuoso level over the course of an entire fight. His British, former Olympic gold medalist of an opponent made sure that remained the case in the Inglewood Forum by immediately re-establishing himself in the fourth behind great body work from the outside.
From there this fight fell into a high quality rhythm in which each round contained intense action while alternating who was doing the better of it without any one of them becoming one sided. Linares would win a round, then Campbell would. These were very close rounds, so close that I was expecting at least one almost understandable wide scorecard in either direction, but thankfully that didn’t happen.
In the eleventh round, Campbell for the first time took his foot off the gas a bit. It was still a close round thanks to his jab, but I thought it was a clear Linares round. As I had also given Jorge the tenth, this was the first time someone won consecutive rounds on my card in this fight since the second and third, also for Linares. When he came out looking sharp and rejuvenated in the twelfth, the Venezuelan titleholder sealed the fight 115-112 on my card. Harold Lederman had it 116-111 for him.
Official scores came back with a refreshing trio of very fair cards starting with a 115-113 Campbell that was overruled by 115-112 and 114-113 for Linares. Mathematically, this means that Campbell wins with one more round going his way, say maybe the eleventh when he really took his foot off the gas. It also means that the fight is a split draw without the knockdown.
I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing this one again if Linares cannot secure the Mikey Garcia fight that he is craving. Post fight he even said that he would go to 140 for it. Luke Campbell of course thought he won, and you could certainly score it that way, but his insistence that he had outclassed Linares wasn’t a great look for him.
Also, Antonio Orozco’s undercard fight against Roberto Ortiz was scrapped when Orozco drained his body and still didn’t come close to making weight. Ortiz offered to fight anyway, but Orozco wasn’t fit to compete. This is the second time Antonio Orozco has had an HBO fight fight canceled last minute due to weight. It will likely be next to impossible for him to get a third chance.
