BY HURBUN WILLIAMS

Observer writer

SAKIMA Mullings hammered his way into the Wray & Nephew Contender oxing series final for the right to meet Tsetsi ‘Lights Out’ Davis for Jamaica’s Ultimate Welterweight 2014 title, with a devastating fourth-round TKO of Donovan ‘Police’ Campbell at the Wray & Nephew Coliseum on Water Lane in downtown Kingston on Wednesday.

The final is set for July 9 at the National Indoor Centre from which the winner will walk away with the purse of $2,000,000. The runner-up will pocket $500,000.

Davis was the first to book his spot in the final a week earlier with a resounding points decision over the tough but aging Guyanese master boxer Howard ‘Battersea Bomber’ Eastman at the same venue.

It was the 10th victory by the KO route scored by Mullings and it came as no surprise as from the opening bell he was on the attack and Campbell could have been out cold from the opening exchanges, but managed to survive. Campbell, like Mullings, entered the Coliseum as gladiators do in immaculate fighting condition, and in round two, raised the wrath of Mullings by landing some solid punches, but they lacked the venom to fell his opponent.

As it turned out, it was a wake-up call for the industrious Mullings, who stepped up the tempo and waded into Campbell like a true gladiator in the third round that brought the first of two knockdowns.

Following the mandatory count by referee Ian Jardine, Mullings pursued a wounded Campbell to finish him off, but the bell intervened. Be that as it may, this was only to delay the inevitable, as down went Campbell again in round four, with 1:04 minutes of the round remaining. At this stage, Campbell was propped up against the ropes bludgeoned from the furious fists of a fluid Mullings, until referee Jardine stepped in to stop the carnage. Campbell then fell to the floor in a heap to signal it was all over for him.

Being in immaculate shape for the contest at age 45, Campbell — after 23 fights with13 wins, nine losses and one draw — did not look beaten, he looked old and listless in his movements. Gone from him was his reaction speed. And after losing by the TKO route for the first time in a distinguished career as a professional boxer, he thought it fitting to quit boxing and he announced his retirement.

“I congratulate Sakima on his victory, but for me it is time to quit. I am 45 and at my age it is retirement for me, no more. This is my second knockout since I have been boxing — one as an amateur and this one as a professional, so I doubt I will stay in the sport much longer,” Campbell added.

With the thrill of victory coursing through his veins, Mullings boasted: “I told you am going to run over him like a… truck. That I did. Am younger, am stronger, I hit harder, I am faster, I’m more talented, I’m more skilful, I work harder, I am better prepared and he was like my baby, there is nothing he could do, nothing.”