Luke Campbell (boxer)

Luke Campbell MBE
Campbell with his Olympic gold medal, 2012
Statistics
Nickname(s)	Cool Hand
Rated at	Lightweight
Height	5 ft 9 in (175 cm)
Reach	71 in (180 cm)
Nationality	British
Born	27 September 1987 Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England
Stance	Southpaw
Boxing record
Total fights	14
Wins	13
Wins by KO	11
Losses	1
Medal record Men's amateur boxing Representing  Great Britain Olympic Games 2012 London Bantamweight Representing  England World Championships 2011 Baku Bantamweight European Championships 2008 Liverpool Bantamweight EU Championships 2009 Odense Bantamweight

Luke Campbell, MBE (born 27 September 1987) is a British professional boxer. As an amateur he won a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics and silver at the 2011 World Championships, both in the bantamweight division.^[1]

Amateur boxing career

Senior ABA titles

Campbell, who fights out of the St. Paul's Amateur Boxing Club in Hull, won the English senior ABA Bantamweight title in 2007 and retained the honour in 2008 after beating Gareth Smith 23–1 in the final.^[2]

2008 European Championships

He represented England at the 2008 European Amateur Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England. At the championships Campbell defeated Olympic bronze medalist Veaceslav Gojan in the quarterfinals and German Denis Makarov in the semifinals before facing experienced Bulgarian Detelin Dalakliev in the final.^[3]

After four rounds the Bulgarian levelled the scores in the fight to 5 each after he scored a point in the last two seconds of the fight. The decision then went to countback and Campbell was awarded the title making Campbell the first Englishman to win a European amateur title since 1961.^[4]

2010 Four Nations Challenge

Following his successful return, following a year long sabbatical to recover from tendon surgery, to International competition at the WBC Night Of Champions in Cardiff in July, Luke started his 2012 London Olympics preparations by securing Gold at the Four Nations Challenge in Sheffield.

On the Saturday Luke, who convincingly won his Featherweight (57 kg) fight by an 11–5 points margin over China’s Jun Tan at the WBC Night Of Champions,^[5] continued his winning ways by beating Kazakhstan’s Shulakov Madi by 6 – 4 in the semi final of the Four Nations Challenge.

In Sunday’s final Luke again faced Jun Tan from China, his adversary the previous week at the WBC Night of Champions. As before Luke dominated the proceedings, this time winning by an increased points margin of 11–3.^[6]

2011 World Championships

Campbell qualified for the 2012 Olympic Games after winning a silver medal at the 2011 World Amateur Boxing Championships – Bantamweight in Baku, Azerbaijan.

2012 Summer Olympics

Gold telephone box near St Paul's Boxing Club, Hull commemorating Campbell's gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

At the 2012 London Olympics, Campbell won gold in the 56 kg Bantamweight division after beating Ireland's John Joe Nevin 14:11. Campbell had earlier beaten Italian, Vittorio Parrinello, by 11:9. In the quarter-finals he met Detelin Dalakliev of Bulgaria in his closest bout of the competition, edging it by a score of 16:15. His next opponent, Satoshi Shimizu from Japan- who had earlier been reinstated in the tournament by AIBA after a successful appeal after a defeat by Magomed Abdulhamidov was beaten by 20:11. Campbell beat Nevin in the final bout, and dropped the Irishman at the start of the third round, thus becoming the first bantamweight boxer to win Olympic gold for Great Britain since Henry Thomas in 1908.^[7]

A first class postage stamp, depicting Campbell, was issued by Royal Mail and a post box in Hessle Road, Hull was painted gold to commemorate his gold medal win.^[8] Local telephone network provider, KC, have also commemorated the win by painting one of their telephone boxes, near to St Paul's Boxing Club, gold.^[9]

Campbell was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to boxing.^[10][11]

Professional boxing career

Campbell's first professional fight took place on 13 July 2013 at Craven Park in his home city of Hull.^[12] His opponent was Andy Harris who he beat in the first round.^[13] Campbell continued his undefeated start to his career with a 5th round stoppage of Lee Connelly in Hull on 2 November 2013.^[14] In his fifth professional bout Campbell carried on his undefeated record and became the first person to stop Scott Moises.^[15]

In April 2014 Campbell announced that he would be taking a break from boxing, pulling out of his next scheduled bout, following his father being diagnosed with cancer.^[16]

In the media

In December 2012 it was announced that Campbell would take part in ITV's Dancing on Ice series 8 which started on 6 January 2013, skating with professional Jenna Smith.^[17] He reached the final of Dancing On Ice 2013 with Beth Tweddle and Matt Lapinskas. He came third while Matt came second and Beth came first.

Personal life

Campbell has two sons with his wife Lynsey Kraanen.^[18]

Campbell's grandfather was an Irish boxing champion and members of Campbell's family still live in Ireland.^[19]

Professional boxing record

See also

• 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics gold post boxes

References

1. "Olympic champion Luke Campbell agrees deal to turn professional". BBC Sport (BBC). 22 April 2013. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
2. "English ABA Nationals". Strefa. Retrieved 16 November 2008.
3. "Medallists by weight category" (PDF). AIBA. Retrieved 16 November 2008.
4. Mark Staniforth. "CAMPBELL EYES 2012 AFTER EURO GLORY". Sporting Life. Retrieved 16 November 2008.
5. Gianluca Di Caro. "Luke Campbell’s Olympic Dream Back On Track After Huge Win In Cardiff". BoxingNews24. Retrieved 28 August 2010.
6. Gianluca Di Caro. "Luke Campbell Reigns Supreme At Four Nations Challenge". Boxing Republic. Retrieved 28 August 2010.
7. "Luke Campbell – Events and results". www.london2012.com. Retrieved 14 August 2012.
8. "Gold medal stamp for Olympic champion Luke Campbell". This is Hull and East Riding. 11 August 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
9. "Luke Campbell: Hull honours Olympics boxing gold medallist". BBC News (BBC). 12 August 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
10. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 60367. p. 24. 29 December 2012.
11. "2013 New Year's Honours" (PDF). Retrieved 29 December 2012.
12. "Luke Campbell set to make professional boxing debut". BBC Sport (BBC). 13 July 2013. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
13. "Luke Campbell wins first professional fight in 88 seconds". BBC Sport (BBC). 14 July 2013. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
14. "Luke Campbell continues winning start to professional career". BBC Sport (BBC). 2 November 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
15. "Curtis Woodhouse wins British title and confirms retirement". BBC Sport (BBC). 22 February 2014. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
16. "uke Campbell: Olympic champion taking break from boxing". BBC Sport (BBC). 15 April 2014. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
17. "Dancing on Ice 2013 celebrity line-up revealed". BBC Newsbeat. BBC. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
18. Simon Boyle (12 January 2013). "Dancing on Ice: Luke Campbell talks about how boxing saved him". Mirror Online. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
19. "Luke Campbell takes home first British bantamweight boxing gold for over 100 years". The Telegraph. 11 August 2012. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
20. "Luke Campbell – Boxer". Boxrec.com. Retrieved 13 July 2014.

External links

• Official website for Luke Campbell
• Professional boxing record for Luke Campbell from BoxRec