Luke Campbell

As of September 2019, Campbell is ranked as the world's fifth best active lightweight by The Ring, sixth by BoxRec and eighth by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board.

Campbell believed he won the fight, speaking to Max Kellerman he said, “No one can ever doubt my heart. Yeah, I got off to a rocky start. He hit me with a nice, clean shot in the second round, caught me on the eye, cut it. I wasn’t dazed. From there, I had double vision in one eye for the rest of the fight. But from then, I out-classed him. I thought I won the fight. He’s a great champion, but I thought I out-classed him. I didn't think he was landing any shots whatsoever, and I was catching him with all the clean shots.” Linares praised Campbell for his efforts, “He was a tough opponent. Many people said he was very easy, but it’s not for no reason he’s an Olympic champion. I fought very well all the way to the 12th round. And I think in the fifth round, I started to box him a little bit because I didn't wanna get hurt.” CompuBox stats showed Linares landed 140 of 414 thrown (34%), while Campbell was credited to landing 141 of his 524 thrown (27%). After the fight, promoter Eddie Hearn stated that Campbell could fight the winner of Crolla vs. Burns or another possible opponent would be WBO champion Terry Flanagan. A day after the fight, Campell revealed that his father had died of cancer two weeks before the fight. Campbell was in the United States at his training camp when his father died at home, with family members. The fight drew an average of 687,000 viewers and peaked at 726,000 viewers on HBO.

On 31 July, Campbell announced Shane McGuigan as his new trainer. 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.” In his statement, McGuigan said he would help Campbell become an elite as well as win a world title.

On 31 August 2019, Campbell is scheduled to challenge the Ukrainian top pound-for-pound fighter and three-division world champion, Vasyl Lomachenko, for the WBA, WBO, The Ring, and vacant WBC lightweight titles. The fight will be held at The O2 Arena in London.

On 22 August 2019, Sky Sports released "The Gloves are Off: The Debate (Lomachenko vs. Campbell)" segment, hosted by former cruiserweight world champion Johnny Nelson, with retired, former world champions Tony Bellew, Carl Froch, David Haye and Paulie Malignaggi giving their pre-fight analysis as part of the lead up to the fight. Although all parties agreed Campbell will be the underdog going into the fight, with the odds being stacked in Lomachenko's favour, all praised Campbell's skill and amateur pedigree, with Malignaggi insisting Campbell is "one of the better fighters in the world to have not won a world championship."

On 3 January 2017, it was announced that Campbell would defend his WBC Silver title against Mexican fringe boxer Jairo Lopez (21-6, 14 KOs) at the Ice Arena in Hull on 25 February. The title defence would be part of a triple header, also including fellow Hullensian Tommy Coyle and Gavin McDonnell challenging for the vacant WBC World super bantamweight championship. Campbell won the fight in round 2 after a well timed uppercut floored Lopez. Referee Ian-John Lewis halted the fight. Lopez was also dropped in round 1 just before the bell rang. Campbell retained his WBC silver lightweight title. After the fight, Campbell and promoter Eddie Hearn both said the fight they were chasing next is a rematch with French boxer Yvan Mendy, to avenge his sole loss. “Mendy has done the worst thing possible in beating me", Campbell said after the fight.

Golden Boy Promotions matchmaker, Robert Diaz, announced that WBA and The Ring lightweight champion Jorge Linares (42-3, 27 KOs) would next fight on 23 September 2017 and ruled out Campbell as his opponent. The plan being to have Campbell to fight on the undercard. If both fighters win their respected bouts, they would meet in the future. On 21 July 2017 the WBA ordered Linares to make a mandatory defence against Campbell. As per WBA rules, a titleholder must fight a mandatory within 9 months, this time would expire on 23 July, having won the title from Crolla in September 2016. Both sides were given 30 days to come to an agreement for the fight. On 27 July, a deal was reached for Linares and Campbell to fight at The Forum in Inglewood, California on 23 September 2017. The bout will be shown live on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom and on HBO: Boxing After Dark in the United States. In an interview, Linares said, “I am excited to make my return to the US and to headline a HBO show for the first time. I know Campbell is a tough [...] I am confident that I will emerge victorious on September 23rd.” This fight would mark the second time Campbell fights professionally in California. In front of 4,125, Linares won his 12th straight fight, retaining his WBA world title after 12 rounds against Campbell. 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. ESPN.com also scored the fight 115-112 for Linares. Linares dropped Campbell with a straight right hand to the head in round 2. Between rounds 5 to 9, Campbell took control of the fight. Linares later told HBO that he wanted to reduce his amount of offense so that he wouldn't get hurt. Once the championship rounds started, Linares regained control of the fight. Had Campbell not been dropped early in the fight, the verdict would have been a split decision draw.

Luke was born in Hull and supports local football team Hull City. He featured in a video by Hull City in 2015.

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.

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, 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.

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

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

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. 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.

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.

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

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, controversially 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.

Despite announcing he would be taking a break from boxing, Campbell fought a further four times in 2014. A points win over Craig Woodruff, a knockout win of Steve Trumble, a technical knockout (TKO) victory over Krzysztof Szot and another TKO win over Daniel Eduardo Brizuela. In March 2015, Campbell faced off against 24 year old Nicaraguan Levis Morales (11-1-1, 4 KOs) at the Ice Arena in Hull. Campbell knocked down Morales in round 2 and 3, before the referee Howard John Foster stopped the fight resulting in a TKO victory for Campbell.

He represented England at the 2008 European Amateur Boxing Championships in Liverpool. At the Championships, Campbell defeated Olympic bronze medalist Veaceslav Gojan of Moldova in the quarterfinals and Denis Makarov of Germany in the semifinals before facing the experienced Detelin Dalakliev of Bulgaria in the final.

Campbell fought for St. Paul's Amateur Boxing Club in Hull, winning the English senior ABA bantamweight title in 2007 and retaining in 2008 after beating Gareth Smith 23–1 in the final.

Luke Campbell, MBE (born 27 September 1987) is a British professional boxer. He held the WBC Silver and Commonwealth lightweight titles from 2016 to 2017, and has challenged twice for world championships; the WBA and The Ring lightweight titles in 2017, and the WBA, WBO, The Ring and vacant WBC lightweight titles in 2019. As an amateur, Campbell won gold at the 2008 European Championships and 2012 Olympics, and silver at the 2011 World Championships, all in the bantamweight division.

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.

On 6 August, Sky Sports announced the rematch between Campbell and 33 year old French boxer Yvan Mendy (40-4-1, 19 KOs) was confirmed to take place on the Anthony Joshua vs. Alexander Povetkin undercard at the Wembley Stadium in London on 22 September. Since defeating Campbell in their first fight in December 2015, Mendy had gone on to win seven fights in a row and picked up a #1 ranking with WBC at lightweight. Hearn called the bout a 'true 50-50 fight' as both boxers had improved since their first meeting. Campbell won the bout on points to avenge the earlier defeat. After 12 rounds the scorecards read 119-109, 118-111 and 116-112 in favour or Campbell. Mendy had his moments in the earlier rounds, but once Campbell adjusted, he was able to box and move to pound out a decision victory in what was a WBC lightweight title eliminator.

On 10 April 2017, Eurosport and Sky Sports announced that Campbell would be involved in a WBA Lightweight title eliminator against former interim WBA lightweight titlist Darleys Pérez (33-2-2, 21 KOs) on the Anthony Joshua vs. Wladimir Klitschko undercard at the Wembley Stadium on 29 April 2017. The winner would be in the number one position to challenge champion Jorge Linares. Pérez weighed over the limit at 136.3 pounds, so had he won the bout, he would not have been eligible for the mandatory spot. Campbell racked up the win via a 9th round stoppage win, which was due to injury. It was said that Pérez hurt his left arm after a throwing a left hook. He signaled to the referee that he could not continue and the fight was stopped at 1 minute 28 seconds into the round. Although Pérez started the fight well, enough to win the first three rounds, he physically looked gassed by the later rounds where Campbell took over. With the win, Campbell was made the new mandatory challenger to WBA champion, held by Jorge Linares. Eddie Hearn said he would speak to Golden Boy Promotions to push things forward for the fight to be made.

On 1 August, Campbell claimed the vacant WBC International lightweight title by defeating fellow Hullensian Tommy Coyle (21-2, 10 KOs) via 10-round TKO at the KC Lightstream Stadium. This was also a WBC lightweight eliminator. Coyle was knocked down once in round 2 following a left to the body and three times in round 12 before the referee waved off the fight. Only four months later in December, Campbell lost the title and mandatory status in a split decision loss to French boxer Yvan Mendy (32-4-1, 16 KOs) at The O2 Arena in London on the undercard of Anthony Joshua vs. Dillian Whyte. Campbell was floored for the first time in his professional career in a ragged defensive display as Mendy received a split decision with scores of 115-112, 115-113, while the third judge scored it 115-113 for Campbell.

Promoter Eddie Hearn revealed Campbell was next due to fight on 30 July 2016 at the First Direct Arena in Leeds for the vacant WBC Silver lightweight title against 30 year old former IBF junior-lightweight champion Argenis Mendez (23-4-1, 12 KOs). Although being floored by a sharp right hand in the second round, Campbell proved to be too quick and dominated the remainder of the fight to claim the vacant WBC Silver lightweight title. From the third round, it became a comfortable fight for Campbell who moved his opponent around the ring and caught him with a succession of punches. The scorecards were all in favour of Campbell 116-111, 117-110, 115-112, who stated he would now like to land a world title shot.