Former world title challenger and Olympic gold medallist, Luke Campbell, has given praise to two of the men that defeated him in the professional game, Ryan Garcia and Vasily Lomachenko.
However, when comparing the two, Campbell seemed far more impressed by one of them.
Campbell hung up the gloves in 2021, seven months after his defeat to Ryan Garcia, where he became the first fighter to knock down the undefeated youngster, but lost after succumbing to a brutal left-hook to the body in the seventh round.
Despite never winning a world title, Campbell was one of the best British lightweights that the country produced since the turn of the millennium and although he never achieved world honours, many feel that was due to bad luck and timing, rather than a lack of ability.
‘Cool Hand’ also faced Vasily Lomachenko, when the Ukrainian was perceived to be at his peak and was ranked as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the sport.
In an interview with Boxing News, Campbell compared the two opponents and clearly felt Garcia was the superior lightweight.
“Garcia will be a pound-for-pounder. He was a lot better than I thought he was. He has power in both hands; hard punches in both hands.
His speed and his timing is like nothing I’ve been in with before – he’s faster than Lomachenko, and has better timing. You can hit Garcia, but his timing and speed is his best quality. He can punch much harder than Lomachenko.
I hurt Garcia; was hitting him with hard shots, and he was shrugging them off, backing himself.”
It may be some time before we see Garcia take on Lomachenko, if we ever do, with Garcia claiming that he will never fight at lightweight again, whilst Lomachenko’s heart is set on winning back his world titles.
‘Loma’ will get that chance next month, as he takes on Devin Haney for the undisputed title on May 20th.