Frampton-Quigg: Luke Campbell in 'Make or Break' Fight

By Shaun Brown

Luke Campbell (12-1, 10 KOs) faces a “make or break” fight on February 27, according to his promoter Eddie Hearn.

The 28-year-old lightweight had conquered all of his 12 opponents with relative ease before bumping into Yvan Mendy, a former European title challenger, who wrestled the WBC International lightweight strap away from Campbell last month at London's O2 Arena.

The split decision loss for Campbell, the first of his professional career, was a serious setback to future world title aspirations. The 2012 Olympic Gold medallist looks set to return to action on February 27 in Manchester on the Scott Quigg-Carl Frampton undercard.

“[He’ll be] back in a big fight,” Hearn told Boxing Scene.

“As big a fight as the last one, probably bigger,” he added.

“He made some mistakes in the build-up to that [Mendy] fight and he’s not young enough to start getting back into eight or ten rounders and he doesn’t want to have those fights. There’s a very strong chance he’ll be on the card against a top world ranked opponent and it’ll be a make or break fight.”

Campbell’s fight against Mendy was his first real test since turning professional and found himself under pressure throughout the fight. At times he looked like he was being bullied by an opponent who clearly had no respect for Campbell’s amateur achievements or reputation.

Dropped in the fifth round from a left hook the Brit took more clean shots than ever in his professional career. The general feeling was that not only did Mendy deserve the win but he deserved a clearer decision than the split decision verdict awarded.

Hearn told ‘Scene that he and his Matchroom Boxing team hope to make an announcement in mid-January about the undercard. He did inform us that British bantamweight champion Ryan Burnett would appear on the bill.

And as Boxing Scene’s Elliot Foster reported on January 3, English flyweight champion Charlie Edwards looks set to make the second defence of his title against Northern Ireland’s Luke Wilton on the pay-per-view event as well.

Shaun Brown is Boxing Scene’s UK News Editor. Follow him on Twitter @sbrown2pt0 Contact him at sbrownboxing@gmail.com