By: Jim Amato

Former IBF light middleweight champion Yory Boy Campas will be battling in the historic fight town of Youngstown, Ohio this Friday night. So many greats have come out of Youngstown and its surrounding areas. Tommy Bell, Tony Janiro, Lenny and Ray Mancini, Greg Richardson, Harry Arroyo and Jeff Lampkin just to name a few. Of course there is current star Kelly Pavlik, the top rated middleweight contender.

Billy Lyell of Niles, Ohio will take on the grizzled former champion Campas. One of the best fighters to come out of Niles was smooth boxing Sonny Horne. Sonny met the great Rocky Graziano on more then one occasion and gave the ” Rock ” quite a tussle. Lyell hopes a win over the aged but still tough Campas will jump start his career. Lyell will come into the middleweight contest with a formidable 15-4 record. No doubt though that Campas will be Billy’s big test.

Campas got his first title shot in 1994 with a record of 56-0. He met the legendary Felix Trinidad and was stopped in the fourth round of a real war for the IBF welterweight title. In 1996 he failed to win the WBO title against rugged Jose Luis Lopez. In 1997 he moved up to 154 pounds and defeated Rual Marquez to win the IBF crown. He lost that title the following year to Fernando Vargas. A loss in 2000 to Oba Carr dropped Campas in the ratings but he rebounded to halt comebacking Tony Ayala Jr.

In 2002 Campas failed to win the WBO title against Daniel Santos and in 2003 he met Oscar De La Hoya for the WBA and WBC titles. Yory was taken out by Oscar in the seventh round. Since the loss to De La Hoya, Campas has won eight of twelve bouts. Just last September he lost a hard fought twelve round decision to undefeated John Duddy for the IBA middleweight title. Yory’s record is 88-10. He has 72 career knockout wins. No doubt that Lyell has his work cut out for him. Lyell by the way is trained by Jack Loew who is Kelly Pavlik’s trainer. The fight will be shown on Telefutura.