ESPN2 FNF: Thomas Williams Jr. vs. Gabriel Campillo RBR

By ALL RIGHTS, when Sergey beat Campillo, Campillo was the UNCROWNED WBA AND IBF CHAMPION having been robbed by all accounts.


That makes Sergey the unified WBO, WBA, and IBF Champion by default.

Not that the default is gonna matter if Roidnard follows thru with his HOLLOW promise.

 

Especially if it was a Polish fighter

 

AtlASS hates Eastern European fighters to the extreme. Kovalev easily knock Campillo out, Campillo outboxed and beat the crap out of Cloud, but was cheated by Don King's judges..................Campillo can fight, but usually has to take fights on short notice. He is a boxer................

 

Campillo is solid as solid comes. good win for him

 

This was a really good, really interesting ESPN FNF main event. I had the fight scored for Williams through 5 rounds, 3-2 rounds, 48-47 points, giving Campillo the 4th and 5th rounds.

The 1st round began by the two fighters exchanging several jabs, then 40 seconds in Williams had the first moment by landing a jab-jab-overhand L combo. At 1:10 in, Williams landed an overhand R-overhand L-R body combo. At 1:40 in, Williams landed a sequence of 5 jabs, then an overhand L-overhand R-R body combo. With about a minute left in the round, Williams landed a double jab and straight left, followed shortly after by an overhand R-L combo. With about 10 seconds left in the round, Williams landed a jab-overhand L, missed a couple punches, then landed a good R body-R head combo. Williams also landed several other good overhand lefts during the round, while Campillo only mustered several scattered jabs.

Campillo began the 2nd with a few potshot jabs. Williams landed a left to the body, then a jab-R body combo, then an overhand L-R uppercut combo. Campillo then had his first moment of the fight with a jab-jab-straight R combo, Williams landed a left to the body, then Campillo landed 3 jabs and then a left uppercut. Halfway through the round, Williams landed two jab-overland L combos. Williams then landed a jab-overhand R, then two straight rights, and then with about 1:10 left in the round, he landed a double jab-double overhand R combo, followed by a straight L-R body combo. The two exchanged jabs, then with 40 seconds left in the round Williams landed an overhand L-R body-L body-overhand L combo. Campillo landed a few potshot jabs, then Williams closed the round with an overhand L-R combo and then a jab-overhand L-R-L combo.

Williams began the 3rd with a hard jab, a couple more jabs, then a jab-overhand L combo. At 30 seconds into the round, Campillo landed his first really meaningful punches of the fight with a L uppercut-overhand R-overhand L combo. The two exchanged overhand rights, Campillo landed a sharp jab, Williams landed a good thumping right to the body. Williams then landed a right hook head-right hook body combo, then a couple overhand rights. Halfway through the round, Campillo landed a very good jab-L uppercut-straight R combo. Campillo landed three jabs with a about a minute left in the round, and then with 50 seconds left in the round Campillo landed a jab that had Williams pawing his face and putting his gloves up high and tight, and had Atlas noting that “Williams has changed, he's getting tested”. Campillo followed this up with three jabs and a left uppercut. With 35 seconds left in the round, Campillo landed a jab that Williams countered with a BIG thumping right hook that visibly stiffened Campillo, but Campillo recovered, threw a few jabs, then Williams closed the round with a good jab-straight L-R hook head-L body-R body combo. At the end of the round, the commentator noted Williams had a “busted nose”, but it was not clear which punch caused it.

Williams began the 4th with a L hook body-R hook body combo, at the end of which Campillo briefly lost his footing. Williams landed a good jab, but then Campillo regained the front foot by landing several jabs in a row, causing Atlas to say “Williams is struggling”. But Williams responded with a good right hook head-straight L combo about a minute into the round. Campillo landed a good L uppercut-L hook combo to the head. About 1:20 into the round, Williams began a good 15-20 second spell, he landed a L-R-R-L body combo, then a L-R body combo, then a jab-overhand R, then a good L-R body combo. Then came a weird 20 second sequence during which the two exchanged several jabs, and the referee announced Campillo (with 1:15 left in round) was “cut by a punch”, and then Williams (with 0:55 left in round) was “cut by a punch”; Williams came out the worse, briefly pawing his face, and then circling the ring in retreat for the rest of the round while Campillo pursued him. Campillo landed a few jabs, then with 10 seconds left in the round Campillo landed a hard jab that opened a cut on Williams' left eyelid and had him wincing and pawing the left side of his face, although Williams managed to land an overhand R-L combo near the bell.

Williams began the 5th very strongly, with an overhand L-R body-L body-R body-overhand left combo, a R-L body combo, and a good right hook to the body, all in the first 30 seconds of the round. But Campillo responded with three good jabs that all visibly affected Williams. Williams landed a left hook to the body, Campillo landed a couple jabs, then about 1:15 into the round Campillo landed a solid left uppercut-R hook combo to the head that had Williams crouching and briefly staggered, but Williams responded a couple seconds later with a solid overhand right, but then Campillo responded a couple seconds after that with a single solid jab targeting the cut eyelid that had Williams again pawing his face and going into retreat. Campillo caught up to him, landed a single jab that had Williams moving in for the only clinch of the entire fight at the halfway point of the round, and upon the break Williams was pawing at the cut, squinting, complaining. Williams then started circling the ring in retreat, but Campillo caught up to him and landed a jab-jab-overhand left combo, followed by a jab-L uppercut-R hook combo to the head with about a minute left in the round. With Williams retreating, Campillo followed up with two jabs, a left to the face, and then caught Williams in the corner with a jab-overhand R-L-R-R combo with 45 seconds left in the round, then a little later a straight right, a jab, a jab-L uppercut combo, and a jab-L hook combo with 15 seconds left in the round. Williams spent the rest of the round in full duck-and-retreat mode, glancing to his corner at one point. During the break at the end of the round, Williams' stepfather/trainer asked the referee to have the doctor look at the cut, and on the advice of the doctor, the referee stopped the fight.

Nothing against Williams, but Campillo is one of my favourite fighters, and I was immensely gratified by this result. Williams actually came in with a good plan, he knew Campillo kept his guard high and tight, so Williams focused on throwing overhand rights and lefts around Campillo's guard, and on doing excellent body work, as Campillo's high guard left his body open, plus Campillo had lost the Fonfara fight last year on a body shot. But Campillo from the beginning, to his credit, was the one moving forward for most of the fight, and he attacked, mostly with jabs (using his 4-inch reach advantage) and straight rights and lefts, plus occasional hooks and uppercuts; the punches may have often looked like potshots, but they were sharp and succinct, and when Campillo landed that hard jab with 10 seconds left in the 4th that opened the cut on Williams' left eyelid, all the momentum swung in his favour, and he was on the front foot on attack for essentially the rest of the fight, with Williams in full retreat mode, and while Williams still had his moments, Campillo was methodical in targeting and working that cut, and ultimately came to be dominating by the end of the 5th round, leading to the end of the fight.

All in all, this was an excellent performance and win by Campillo, and it moves him from #10 to #2 in the IBF light heavyweight rankings (and from #24 to #8 in the BoxRec rankings), in line for a possible eventual world title shot against Hopkins. Who knows if Campillo will actually get a Hopkins fight, but the important thing is this win keeps him relevant on the world level. As for Williams, he had told ESPN prior to the fight he had never been cut, and frankly it showed in this fight, because he handled the adversity of the cut very poorly. But to his credit, he came in with a good plan and followed it for awhile, and he had good power in his punches. Campillo was just too big a leap up in class for him.