Boxing Result: WBA Champ Garay Dethroned In Argentina

ByAlejandro Tostado

At Sunchales in Sante Fe, Argentina last night, WBA light heavy champ Hugo Hernan Garay was upset by former Spanish light heavy titlist Gabriel Campillo, who pulled off a 12 round majority decision shocker.

Garay, of Tigre, Buenos Aires, won the vacant WBA belt last July with a decision over Yuri Barashian at Buenos Aires’ famous Luna Park Stadium and was coming off a successful defense in Germany against Juergen Braehmer in November.

The native Argentine was expected to retain against Madrid based southpaw Campillo, who was coming off a narrow loss to Karo Murat for the European super middle title last September before winning the European Union 168 lb crown with a hard fought UD over Lolenga Mock in March.

Looking to take control of the bout from the start, Garay commanded the center of the ring during the early rounds and put his greater experience to good use to keep the challenger on the defensive, much to the delight of the 5,000 strong pro-Garay audience.

Using a high work rate, Garay swept the first four frames and it appeared that Campillo was in over his head during his first bout at world class level.

But Garay miscalculated his energy reserves and was a spent force by the fifth round. Campillo took advantage of this crucial mistake on the champion’s part and began to turn the tables on the Argentine fighter.

Campillo used his reach advantage to work behind a long southpaw jab and without much in the way of return fire from the gassed Garay, took complete control of the bout.

Garay was never able to get back into the contest and took some heavy fire along the way, losing the contest by majority decision on scores of 115-114, 114-113 and 114-114.

In a major upset, Campillo becomes the new WBA light heavyweight champion while improving to 18-2 (6). Garay drops to 32-2 (17) and has only lost bouts by split or majority decision with one DQ loss.

On the undercard, Yesica Yolanda Bopp, 9-0 (4), stopped Paulina Cardona, 14-6-3 (6), in the second for the WBA Female light flyweight title while Roberto Domingo Sosa, 16-0 (9), finished off Elvis Garcia, 9-5-3 (5), in the eighth for the WBA Fedelatin super fly crown.