Gabriel Campillo workout

Photos and report by Ricardo Conde

Former WBA light heavyweight champion Gabriel ‘Chico Guapo’ Campillo (21-3-1, 8 KOs) of Spain, but now residing in Oxnard, California, will take on undefeated and current IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris ‘Thunder’ Cloud (23-0, 19 KOs) of Tallahassee, Florida on Saturday, February 18th in the co-feature bout of SHOWTIME’s ‘Championship Boxing’ which will be broadcast live from the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas. Headlining the fight card will be former world champion Paul ‘The Punisher’ Williams (40-2, 27 KOs) taking on Nobuhiro Ishida (24-6-2, 9 KOs) in a 12-round junior middleweight bout.

The southpaw Campillo is in the final weeks of training camp under the watchful eye of former junior welterweight champion Pablo Sarmiento at Sarmiento’s Boxing Gym in Oxnard, California. “We’ve been training really hard for this fight here with Sergio Martinez and we’re going to be ready for Cloud on the 18th. This is a great opportunity for me and my team, we’ve been training for this fight for a long time, I feel very strong and motivated for this fight. I have no doubts that I’ll become champion again on the 18th,” said Campillo, who is managed by middleweight king Sergio ‘Maravilla’ Martinez.

This will be Campillo’s first world title bout since losing his title to current WBA/IBA light heavyweight champion Beibut Shumenov (12-1, 8 KOs) by controversial split decision in a rematch in January of 2010. In his last outing, Campillo fought to a controversial 12-round draw with Karo Murat (24-1-1, 14 KOs) this past October in Germany.

January 31st, 2012

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