TOWERING Port Macquarie boxer Hugh Campbell has only been in the ring for a little over 12 months.
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But he has already won his first boxing title after winning the novice heavyweight division at the NSW State Titles in Sydney last weekend.
In his first title attempt, the six-foot-six giant was doing it easily after the first round against Sydney’s John Mitsopoulus.
Then things started to go pear-shaped at the start of the second round when Mitsopoulus landed a massive right hook which rocked Campbell.
“I didn’t have to quite climb off the canvas, but I did get hit with two really big shots so I didn’t quite know where I was,” Campbell said.
“The first round I won quite convincingly, but my confidence was a bit too high in the second round and I survived the count.”
Shortly after his recovery from the first shot, the Port Macquarie boxer was clipped a second time and had a second count put on him.
I could feel the fight slipping away when I looked at him in the other corner so I went into survival mode for that round.
- Port Macquarie boxer Hugh Campbell
“I could feel the fight slipping away when I looked at him in the other corner so I went into survival mode for that round,” Campbell said.
He admitted it gave him a wake-up call in the middle of the fight and realised he needed to be more strategic with his game plan.
“I forgot the power of another bloke and he got through (Campbell’s defence) and I realised I wasn’t invincible,” Campbell said.
“I learnt you have to come to fight, it’s going to be tough and you have to be tough the whole fight.”
Campbell then dominated the third round with a flurry of punches before he was awarded the fight with a unanimous points’ decision.
It put him into the final before he was informed at the weigh-in the following day his opponent had withdrawn after suffering an injury in his previous fight.
The Port Macquarie boxer was then awarded the title with a walkover victory.
Coach Dean Groth was left with little doubt that Campbell’s toughness got him through the first fight.
"It was a hard hit, landing flush on the point of his chin," he said.
"Hugh is a really tough bugger, anyone else would have gone down.”
Campbell will contest Brisbane’s Golden Gloves in August
“The next goal of mine in terms of improvement is to win that event,” he said.