Sunday 24 September 2017 15:52, UK
Luke Campbell passed a test of character and will learn from his world title loss to Jorge Linares, says Johnny Nelson.
The Hull man suffered defeat in his first world title fight, despite a determined fightback from an early knockdown, as only British judge Victor Loughlin scored it 115-113 in his favour, with the two other judges handing a split decision victory to Linares with tallies of 114-113 and 115-112.
Sky Sports expert Nelson was impressed with the manner in which Campbell staged a spirited recovery after hitting the canvas in the second round.
The last quarter of the fight, the championship rounds, that's when it starts to make a difference, but Luke himself still tested Linares at that level
"He sat up, accepted it, got hit with a good shot," said Nelson. "But his test of character was he came back into the fight again with nice, fast combinations, and he was trying to pull the fight out of him.
"Luke matured a hell of a lot in this fight. My worry was the later the fight got, we would start to see him do his classic shoe-shine style.
"The last quarter of the fight, the championship rounds, that's when it starts to make a difference, but Luke himself still tested Linares at that level."
Studio guest Kevin Mitchell shared a brutal battle with Linares before being stopped in 2015, and believes Campbell will come back stronger from his first setback.
"You do start to kick yourself on things like that, but he will look back at that and I think he will have grown from that fight," said Mitchell.
"He will learned a lot from that fight there. Coming back from being dropped and he was hurt.
"He showed great heart and good ability when he came back in the middle rounds and started winning it. I had him two rounds down in that fight and I thought he did really well.
"From there now, you'll see a better Luke Campbell, he'll gain from that a lot more."
