Former WBA Light Heavyweight Champion and now top contender, Gabriel Campillo will be looking to get back into the win column when he takes on the undefeated hard hitting Russian Sergey Kovalev at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut on January 19.
Campillo has been known as the hard luck kid as of late and throughout his career, losing close fights and questionable decisions. Most notably this was the case in his last fight against IBF Light Heavyweight Champion Tavoris Cloud this past February in Corpus Christi, Texas where he lost by split decision. Despite being knocked down twice in the first round, Campillo appeared to be out-boxing Cloud for most of the fight. Not many ringside observers and fans watching from home thought that Cloud had done enough to warrant the victory. Ringside commentator Al Bernstein, who was calling the fight for Showtime stated, “How he (David Robertson) could arrive at a 116-110 score for Cloud is beyond my comprehension.”
Coming off of an eleven month layoff, Campillo will now have the opportunity to put his last fight behind him and get himself back into title contention with a much needed win over Kovalev.
Unfortunately, Kovalev is most known for his fight with fellow Russian boxer Roman Simakov, in which he delivered a frightful beating to Simakov before stopping him in the seventh round. At the end of the fight Simakov lost consciousness and was removed from the ring on a stretcher. He underwent brain surgery but never regained consciousness and died on December 8, 2011. Since that tragedy Kovalev has reeled off two straight knockout victories against nondescript opposition, (Lionell Thompson by TKO 3 and Darnell Boone TKO 2 respectively).
Although Kovalev’s record looks rather impressive at (19-0-1, 17 KOs), he’s faced nowhere near the level of opposition that Campillo has, and this upcoming fight looks to be his toughest to date. It should also be noted that he has never been past the eighth round in his career thus far.
Conventional wisdom says that the more experienced slick boxer Campillo will be looking to avoid the hard hitting Russian’s power early and take him into the deep waters in an attempt to wear him down in the later rounds by outfoxing him with his boxing ability.
It is unclear whether or not Kovalev’s glossy record is a result of soft opposition or if his power is truly for real. We shall find out on January 19, in this very intriguing match-up of boxer vs. puncher, if it will be enough to thwart the wily veteran Gabriel “Guapo” Campillo. This one could get interesting.
