Luke Campbell, Lawrence Okolie Win Top Undercard Fights At Wembley Stadium
Anthony Joshua wasn’t the only boxer to have his hand raised at Wembley Stadium.
In the co-main event of Joshua’s win over Alexander Povetkin to retain his unified WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles, Luke Campbell got one step closer to challenging for a lightweight world title once more. Campbell defeated Yvan Mendy in a WBC lightweight final eliminator.
Campbell won the fight by unanimous decision (116-112, 118-111, 119-109), avenging a loss suffered at the hand of Mendy when the two fought at the O2 Arena back in 2015. With the victory over Mendy, Campbell became the mandatory challenger to the WBC lightweight title currently being held by Mikey Garcia. Whether or not Campbell gets the shot against Garcia is a different story.
Garcia, the unified WBC and IBF lightweight champion, is currently ordered by the IBF to fight mandatory challenger Richard Commey, but Garcia is seemingly more interested in fighting IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. This means Garcia could potentially vacate both of his 135-pound titles. Should that be the case, Campbell would simply have to fight one of the other top boxers ranked by the WBC for the vacant belt.
The other top undercard fight saw top cruiserweight prospect Lawrence Okolie defeat Matty Askin to win the British title. The fight was marred by sluggish fighting and Okolie headbutting and wrestling with Askin, but that did not stop Okolie from winning the fight by unanimous decision. Despite being deducted three points for various fouls throughout the fight, Okolie won with scores of 116-110, 114-112 and 114-113.
A victory over Askin, ranked No. 15 by the WBA prior to the fight, will likely place Okolie in the WBA rankings as well as potentially elevate his standing in the WBC rankings, where he is at No. 15. This is the third title Okolie has won this year after winning the WBA Continental and Commonwealth titles.
