Luke Campbell & Shane McGuigan Join Forces:

Luke Campbell & Shane McGuigan Join Forces:

By Jonny Oxley

Luke “Coolhand Luke” Campbell is close to a return to the ring after a short period of absence, he has also made the decision to change trainers. Campbell is now fighting under the expert guidance of world-renowned trainer Shane McGuigan and is looking to challenge again soon at World title level. Speaking on the partnership, Campbell said:

“I’m incredibly excited to be teaming up with Shane. I’ve always heard good things about him within boxing but having trained under him for a few weeks now I can vouch for just how good he is. We’ve already struck up a great relationship and I have no doubt he is going to help take me to the next level. I want to become a world champion and Shane has a proven track record of achieving that with his fighters. It’s a thriving gym with a great atmosphere and world-class fighters, and that’s where I want to be.”

Campbell (18-2) had a glittering amateur career (153-24) & represented England at the 2008 European Amateur Boxing Championships in Liverpool. At the Championships, he defeated Olympic Bronze medallist Veaceslav Gojan of Moldova in the quarter-finals and Denis Makarov of Germany in the semi-finals before facing the experienced Detelin Dalakliev of Bulgaria in the final.

Campbell qualified for the London 2012 Olympics with a fantastic silver medal at the 2011 World championships and went on to win a gold medal at the Olympics after defeating Ireland’s Joe Joe Nevin (10-0, 4 KO’s) in a thrilling 56kg Bantamweight final, 14 points to 11.

Campbell was subsequently awarded the MBE (Member of the order of the British Empire) in the 2013 New Year’s Honours list for his services to boxing, he also famously had a telephone box painted gold in his hometown of Hull in his honour following his Olympic gold medal in 2012.

Campbell went on to turn professional in 2013 with Matchroom Boxing and promoter Eddie Hearn and quickly claimed the WBC International Lightweight title, beating fellow Hullensian fighter Tommy Coyle (24-4, 12 KO’s).

Campbell had several good-looking performances before he lost a split decision against Jorge Linares (44-4, 27 KO’s) on the 23rd of September 2017 for the World Lightweight title with many thinking he did more than enough for the victory, one judge scored the fight 115-113 for Campbell, the remaining two had it 115-112 and 114-113 in favour of Linares, giving him the split decision win.

Sadly, a day after the fight Luke announced that his Father had passed away 2 weeks prior to the bout following a battle with cancer. Jorge Linares subsequently went on to lose to pound for pound great Vasyl Lomachenko (11-1, 9 KO’s).

Luke will certainly be looking to quickly re-establish himself as he makes his comeback at Lightweight and will be looking to fight regularly in the next 12 months as he progresses back towards a World title shot.