Campas to retire in September

25 March 2008 – by Mark Doyle

Luis Ramon Yori Boy Campas will have two more fights before bringing the curtain down on his incredible career.

The 36-year-old Mexican was outpointed by Matthew Macklin in Dublin on Saturday night, a defeat which saw his record drop to 91-12 (73 KOs) and, despite the spirited nature of his display, trainer Joe Diaz revealed afterwards that the end was near for Campas.

Hes going to fight in Spain in June and then were going to have his last fight in September, probably in Madison Square Garden. Then hell retire, Diaz confirmed.

To me, it was a pretty even fight, against Macklin. Im happy with the fight for a lot of reasons.

A lot of people said that he was too old and that Matthew was too young for him, and that Yori wasnt going to last four rounds.

Well, he went the full ten no problem and I look at the bigger picture so Im happy with his performance.

Diaz, who acted as Campas interpreter during the post-fight press conference revealed that his man was less than impressed with the referees decision to score the fight 98-95 in Macklins favour.

Hes disillusioned with the decision. He felt that he won the fight, he explained.

We had a game plan and we thought it worked for us. Obviously, the referee saw things differently. But while Yoris pretty furious and disagrees with the decision, that has nothing to do with fighting in Ireland. Hes been treated with a lot of respect here.

But there are things that not everybody sees in a fight. He says he got hurt at times but always regrouped well and that hes going back to his country disillusioned with the outcome of the fight.

Indeed, Campas was so upset with the decision that he refused to be compare the respective skills of Macklin and John Duddy, whom he dropped a tightly-contested decision to last year.

Hes not happy, Diaz explained. So he doesnt want to get involved in comparing the two. But he says that the best way to find out who is the better fighter is for Macklin to fight Duddy.