Potential will be pitted against experience when rising lightweight star Ryan Garcia faces former two-time world title challenger Luke Campbell for the WBC interim crown on a date to be announced in November.
Campbell has a rich amateur pedigree, having won Gold at the London 2012 Olympiad, and mixed it with the best as a pro, falling short in world title bids against Jorge Linares and Vasiliy Lomachenko. Californian Garcia, still only 22, has certainly looked the part so far in a 20-0, 17 KOs professional career, but is now entering world class waters.
Hull’s Campbell believes the flashy Garcia, a social media force with a whopping 7.2 million followers on Instagram, is making a huge mistake by facing him.
“He has bitten off more than he can chew,” Campbell told The Daily Star. “His promotional team [Golden Boy Promotions] must think they’ve had enough of him and they’ve thrown him to the dogs.
“I’m really looking forward to this one. This is a big opportunity to show the world that I’m not playing games. All these are great at talking, they are playing games. This guy is just playing games. I’ll teach him a lesson. He’s going to be sorry for this one.”
Campbell (20-3, 16 KOs) will turn 33 in four days’ time, but feels his career has plenty of mileage remaining as he seeks that elusive world title victory.
“I’m not one of them who is bitter and thinks ‘I deserve [a world title]’,” he said. “I just go in and put 100 per cent in and I know the best of me can beat anyone in the world.
“I’ll retire when I want. There are no miles on the clock, I’m still fresh but when I’ve had enough it will be my decision.”