Ryan Garcia vs Luke Campbell, our predictions

Ryan Garcia and Luke Campbell finally will lock horn on 2 January 2021 at American Airlines Center in Dallas for the WBC Lightweight belt. Given the outstanding year of boxing predictions so far (we only missed the winner of Daniel Dubois vs Joe Joyce fight), we do not want to commence 2021 with a wrong prediction. However, we must admit that predicting this fight is almost mission impossible.

Ryan Garcia vs Luke Campbell will be the very first boxing fight of 2021 for a world champion title. The bout, which shall take place in Dallas, Texas at the American Airlines Center on 2nd January 2021 was expected to happen a couple of months ago before Campbell tested positive for Covid-19, reason why the fight has been postponed. Ryan Garcia (20-0, 17 KOs), 22-year-old from California, is the current holder of the WBC belt in the lightweight division, he is undefeated, and he has an impressive percentage of KOs (i.e. 85%). However, the young American boxer seems to lack the relevant experience in fights against great boxers.

And, unfortunately for Ryan Garcia, Luke Campbell (20-3, 16 KOs) is not only a great boxer but also a very experienced one. The 33-year-old British fighter has a long and rather successful career as boxer having won the gold medal at the 2012 Olympic Games of London in the bantamweight category. Other than the long and vast amateur experience, Luke Campbell has fought boxing champions at least in two occasions: against Jorge Linares (47-5, 29 KOs) in 2017 and against Vasyl Lomachenko (14-2, 10 KOs) in 2019. Despite losing both fights by decision, Campbell showed a great resilience and he definitely accrued a lot of experience. In addition, beating the count against Lomachenko at the 11th round is not something common.

For what we have seen so far in Garcia’s career, the American boxer is not at the level of Linares or Lomachenko although he has very fast hands and he has the power to knockout any opponent in his category. Fighting in the United States, Ryan Garcia may also have a bit of extra help from the judges in case of need. Ok, let’s toss the coin… by a small margin I predict the victory by split decision for Luke Campbell.