Sunday 24 September 2017 11:11, UK
Luke Campbell was denied a world title after suffering a split decision points defeat to Jorge Linares, despite a courageous fightback in California.
The Hull man overcame a heavy knockdown in the second round and troubled Linares with a determined rally at the halfway stage, but only Britain's Victor Loughlin scored the fight 115-113 in his favour with the other two judges giving the champion victory with scores of 114-113 and 115-112.
Campbell, wearing the same boots he used to claim Olympic gold in 2012, had fallen short in his first world title fight, although the 29-year-old had proved himself at the highest level in front of an American crowd at The Forum in Los Angeles.
Linares edged forward menacingly in the opening round, capturing Campbell's attention with a crisp right hand, and the Yorkshireman did not heed this warning in the second.
As Campbell tried to box neatly off the back foot, Linares ripped a straight right hand through his defences that dumped him heavily on the canvas.
Campbell survived the closing seconds of the round with a nasty cut under his right eye and tried to fire back with sharp punches of his own at the end of the third.
Both fighters traded body shots in the fourth, with Campbell trying to halt the forward march of Linares, and the southpaw tagged the South American with a stinging combination in the fifth.
Linares acknowledged a Campbell punch with a knowing nod in the sixth, then replied with a crunching body punch, but Campbell was utilising his accurate jab and appeared to edge the seventh.
There was even a confident smile from Campbell after he unloaded a lightning left hand in the eighth and Britain's former amateur hero withstood another right hand from Linares before answering with a flurry of his own at the end of the ninth.
As they entered the closing rounds, Campbell continued to land his straight left on Linares in the 10th, but the experienced champion raised the tempo again in the 11th and had done enough to earn victory when the final bell sounded.
Campbell said: "No one can ever doubt my heart.
"I got off to a rocky start, he hit me with a nice clean shot in the second round, caught me on the eye and cut it. I wasn't dazed or anything like that, just a nice shot that put me on my back.
"From then I had double-vision in one eye for the rest of the fight."
"I thought I won the fight. He's a great champion but I thought I outclassed him. I didn't think he was landing any shots whatsoever and I was catching him with all the clean shots."
