By Ian S Palmer
This Saturday, July 2nd at the Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania, fans will be able to see undefeated Patryck Szymanski of Poland take on Wilky Campfort of Haiti in a 10-round junior middleweight bout. The contest can be seen live in the U.S. on ESPN and ESPN Deportes. Szymanski was last in the ring against Richard Gutierrez in October when he won by a 10-round unanimous decision. Campfort’s last outing was back on November 28th when he was stopped in the fourth round by IBF Junior Middleweight Champion Jermall Charlo of the U.S.
The 23-year-old Szymanski enters the ring with a perfect record of 15-0 along with Kos while the 31-year-old Campfort is 21-2 and has Kos under his belt. Both boxers stand 5-feet-11-inches tall while Szymanski has an unlisted reach and Campfort’s wingspan is 72 inches. Both boxers are on the road for this bout, but they’re used to boxing all over the world. Szymanski has an eight-year advantage in age if you believe youth is an advantage and he also had a fine amateur career as he was a domestic champion before turning pro.
And speaking of turning pro, Szymanski did so in 2009 and has fought 55 rounds since and Campfort turned pro in 2009 and has 94 rounds to his name. Neither is known for their power as Szymanski’s current knockout ratio stands at 60 per cent and Campfort’s is 52 percent. Both competitors like to stay quite active as Szymanski entered the ring three times in 2014 and 2015 and Campfort had four bouts in 2014 and three last year. Szymanski hasn’t really faced any Grade A opponents as of yet with his best victories being against the likes of Mate Hornyak, Richard Gutierrez and Andrei Abramenka.
Campfort, who now fights out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has arguably faced stiffer opponents in Gutierrez, Ronald Montes, Milton Nunez, and Devon Moncrieffe. Of course, Charlo was a huge step up in class and it showed and Campfort also lost to Manny Woods by a four-round majority decision. It was Woods’ pro debut and Campfort’s second pro outing. It would be a stretch to call Campfort an elite boxer even though he’s got a fine record, but at least he’s evenly matched this time out.
Prediction……
Campfort’s chin is questionable as he was stopped by Charlo and has had to pick himself up from the canvas in the past before. He has pretty good boxing skills though and was on a 20-fight winning streak until running into the IBF Champ last year. Both men have fought in the middleweight division as well, but this is supposed to be fought at the 154 lb. limit. The age difference should work in Szymanski’s favour here and while this should be a pretty competitive contest, look for Szymanski to take it via a decision or late stoppage.
