Luke Campbell MBE
Luke Campbell MBE - Boxer
Luke Campbell MBE was born on 27 September 1987 and attended Kingston School and its successor, Pickering High School. As an amateur boxer, Luke won the English Senior ABA Bantamweight title in 2007, retaining it in 2008. In the same year, at the European Amateur Boxing Championships in Liverpool, Luke represented England, winning the title which made him the first Englishman to win a European amateur title since 1961.
After taking a year out to recover from a tendon injury, Luke returned to international competition by winning a gold medal at the Four Nations Challenge in Sheffield. He qualified for the 2012 Olympic Games after winning a silver medal at the 2011 World Amateur Boxing Championships at Bantamweight, in Baku, Azerbaijan. At the Olympics Luke won gold in the 56 kg Bantamweight division, becoming the first bantamweight boxer to win Olympic gold for Great Britain since Henry Thomas in 1908. To commemorate his gold medal win, a first class postage stamp depicting Luke was issued by the Royal Mail and a post box on Hessle Road in Hull was painted gold. Kingston Communications also commemorated the win by painting in gold one of their telephone boxes near to St Paul's Amateur Boxing Club, where Luke trained as an amateur. Luke was awarded an MBE in the 2013 New Year Honours List, for services to boxing.
Luke's first professional fight took place on 13 July 2013 at Craven Park in Hull, beating Andy Harris in the first round. He went on to beat Lee Connelly in Hull on 2 November 2013, and in his fifth professional bout, carried on his undefeated record and became the first person to stop Scott Moises.
In early 2013, Luke took part in ITV's Dancing on Ice series 8, skating with professional Jenna Smith. They came third in the final of the competition. In April 2014, Luke announced that he would take a break from boxing, pulling out of his next scheduled bout for family reasons. However, he fought a further four times in 2014 and in August 2015 won the WBC International lightweight title by defeating fellow Hull boxer Tommy Coyle. Luke then lost this title only four months later, prompting a three month layoff. In July 2016 he came back to defeat Argenis Mendes and claim the vacant WBC Silver Lightweight title, retaining it in January 2017 against Jairo Lopez.
In September 2017 Luke fought Jorge Linares for the WBA world title but lost on points, although he believed he had won. After the fight Luke revealed that his father had died of cancer two weeks before the fight. In July 2018 Luke appointed Shane McGuigan as his new trainer, and in August the following year fought Vasiliy Lomachenko for vacant WBC lightweight titles but lost. His final fight was in January 2021 when he lost to Ryan Garcia. Luke retired from boxing in July of that year.