Audley Harrison won gold in the super-heavyweights in Sydney in 2000 he was the first British winner since Chris Finnegan in 1968. Four years later Amir Khan took silver in the lightweights in Athens and in 2008, middle- weight James DeGale won gold in Beijing. Now with London 2012 approaching, people are wondering who will be the next home-grown fighters to write their names into Olympic history. Here Luke Campbell talks about how he overcame losing seven of his first nine contests, how he divides his training between his local club in Hull and the Great Britain national set-up and his thoughts on whether to turn pro after London 2012.


B


M&F: How and why did you start boxing? LUKE CAMPBELL: I’m not sure what it was that made me initially want to box. I just always wanted to do it. My grandad boxed but I never got to see any of that so from my point of view nobody in my family boxed. I played rugby league as a kid but I think I started to box because I wanted to win trophies. I was juggling both sports, boxing and rugby league and my dad said to me that it would be better


154 MUSCLE&FITNESS


ritish boxing has enjoyed an upturn in Olympic for- tunes in recent years. When


for me to put 100% into one sport rather than 50% into two. He said I should pick whichever I thought I was better at or enjoyed more and as I preferred to box and was better at it, that is what I chose.


M&F: How old were you when you first stepped into the gym? LC: I went with my brother at 13 years of age. I started at a local club, which was a two-minute walk from my house. I didn’t know too much about the gym itself, how good it was or anything like that. It was just nice and convenient to get to. Within two months I was ready to box. Looking back now, I realise actually I wasn’t ready to box but they chucked me straight in at the deep end. I got beat in my first two fights. I won my next two fights and then lost five on the trot because I was being overmatched and wasn’t being trained properly. I still wasn’t aware of any other boxing clubs in Hull at that time until someone mentioned that they thought


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